
THE LIBRARY 

OF 

THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CALIFORNIA 



GIFT OF 

PROFESSOR 
GEORGE R. STEWART 



i\r\ 

M 




Yf 







REPRINTED FROM "HARPER'S BAZAR." 



THE 

UGLY-GIRL PAPERS; 



OR, 



HINTS FOR THE TOILET. 




NEW YORK: 
HARPER BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 

HARTER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO 



AUNT SUSAN, 

THE DEAR AND HANDSOME OLD LADY WHO NEVER 
NEEDED ANY OF THESE RECIPES, 

i 

LET ME OFFER MY FIRST BOOK. 

0. m. $). 



PREFACE. 



BY means of these scattered chapters the 
writer has come to know women better their 
traditions, desires,. and delights. If through 
these pages women should know themselves 
and what they may become in regard and 
temper for their lovers, friends, children, and 
their own sakes, it will w r ell reward the pleas- 
ant labor which has already met such kind 
appreciation. Begun by chance, to make an 
agreeable article or two for Harpers Bazar, 
the "Ugly -Girl Papers" were continued by 
request, and have brought the writer into 
friendly bearings with many of the readers 
of the Bazar. To their questions and hints 
these chapters owe more of their value than 



PREFACE. 

appears on the surface ; and the little book 
goes out hoping to meet, if not new friends, 
at least some old ones. 

The science of the toilet is well -nigh as 
delicate as that of medicine ; and as no pre- 
scription has yet proved a specific for disease, 
no recipe can reach all cases of complexion. 
I could wish for this book 'the good-will and 
consideration of physicians, under whose ad- 
vice it may be hoped its suggestions will ap- 
prove themselves of wide service. 

S.D.R 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Woman's Business to be Beautiful. How to Acquire a Clear 
Complexion. Regimen for Purity of the Blood. Carbon- 
ate of Ammonia and Powdered Charcoal. Stippled Skins. 
Face Masks. Oily Complexions. Irritations of the 
Skin. Lettuce as a Cosmetic. Cooling Drinks. Sun- 
Baths. Bread and Molasses Page 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Care of the Hair. Children's Hair. When to Cut it. 
^-Ammonia Washes. Glycerine and Ammonia. Po- 
mades. How to Brush the Hair. Cutting the Ends. 
German Method of Treating the Hair. Southernwood 
Pomade. Hair -Dyes. Dyeing the Eyebrows and Eye- 
lashes. Superfluous Hair. Depilatories. Washes for 
the Eyelashes and Eyebrows 22 

CHAPTER III. 

Elegance of Manner. Grace of the Latin Races. The 
Secret of Grace. Gliding Movement. Calisthenics. 
Erectness of Figure. Shoulder Braces. How to Acquire 
Sloping Shoulders. Care of the Feet. The Art of Walk- 
ing. Picturesque Carriage of Southern Women 35 

CHAPTER IV. 

N. P. Willis as a Critic of Beauty. The Perfume of the 
Presence. Charm of Good Circulation. Chills are In- 



11 CONTENTS. 

cipient Congestion. Paper Clothing. Luxuries of the 
Bath. A Substitute for Sea -Baths. To Secure Fra- 
grant Breath. Delicate Dentifrices. Fine Cologne. A 
List of Fragrance Page 48 

CHAPTER V. 

Morals of Paint and Powder. Antique Toilet Arts. 
Washington Ladies. Making Up the Face. Whitening 
the Arms. Tints of Kouge. To Make French Rouge. 
Milk of Roses. Greuze Tints. Coarse Complexions 
Caused by Powder. Color for the Lips. Crystal and 
Gold Hair Powder. Dyeing Blonde Wigs. To Darken 
the Hair. Champagne and Black-Walnut Bark. Doom 
of the Complexion Artist 51) 

CHAPTER VI. 

Recamier's Training. Diana of Poitiers' Bath. High 
Beauty of Maturity. The Worth of Beauty. George 
Fliot on Complexions. Dr. Cazenave. Barley Paste for 
the Face. Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies. To Re- 
move Pimples. Cascarilla Wash. Varnish for Wrinkles. 
Acetic Acid for Comedones. To Remove Mask. Lady- 
Mary Montagu. Habit of Italian Ladies. Wash of 
Vitriol 70 

CHAPTER VII. 

Shining Pallor. Lustrous Faces. Golden Freckles. Ti- 
ger-Lily Spots. Sun Photographs. Nitre Removes 
Freckles. Old English Prescription. For Yachting. 
Almond-Oil. Buttermilk as a Cosmetic. Rosemarv and 
Glycerine. Lotion for Prickly Heat. For Musquitoes. 
Protecting Hair from Pea Air. Fashionable Gray Hair. 
Dark Eyes and Silver Hair. To Restore Dark Hair. 
Bandoline. Cold Cream. Almond Pomade. Frr 
Skin Diseases. Sulphurous Acid 77 



CONTENTS. ill 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Service of Beauty. Not for Vanity, but Perfection. Eye- 
brows of Petrarch's Laura. Fashionable Baths. Trim- 
ming the Eyelashes. Luxury of the Toilet, Its Magnet- 
ic Influence. A Safe Stimulant. Amateurs of the Toi- 
let. Cosmetic Gloves. To Refine the J^kin of the Shoul- 
ders and Arms. Sulphate of Quinine for the Hair. For 
the Eyebrows and Eyelashes. A Harmless Dye. To Re- 
move Sallowness. A Hint for Stout People. Perfumed 
Bathing-powder Page 8G 

CHAPTER IX. 

Hope for Homely People. Two Vital Charms. The Way 
to Live. Sunrise and Open Air. Bleached by the Dawn. 
Live at Sunny Windows. In Balconies and Parks. 
Christiana's Breakfast. Brown Steak and Good-humor. 
True Bread. Device for Stiff Shoulders. Corsets and 
Girdles. The Latter more Needed. How to be Pleased 
with One's Self .' 95 

CHAPTER X. 

The Bonniest Kate in Christendom. A Word to Mothers 
and Aunts. Different Vanities. The Sorrows of Ugly 
Women. Recipes of an Ancient Beauty. Sand Wash. 
Color for the Nails. Embrocation for the Hands. 
Soap to Bleach the Arms. Freckle Lotions. Artistic 
Enthusiasm at the Toilet . 1 08 

CHAPTER XL 

A Dark Potion. Olive-oil and Tar for the Face. Olive- 
tar for Inhalation. Carbolic Lotion for Pimples. Cure 
for Musqnito Bites. Pale Blondes. A French Marquise. 
Deepening Colors by Sunlight. Seductive Cosmetics. 
Nose-machine. Finger Thimbles 117 



lv CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Removal of Superfluous Hair. Effects of High Living. 
Work of Typhoid Fever. Roman Tweezers. Lola Mon- 
tez's Recipes. Paste of Wood -ashes. Bleaching Arms 
with Chloride. Cautions about Depilatories. Public 
Baths. Improving Complexions by the Sulphur Va?>or- 
bath. How Arabian Women Perfume Themselves. 
Profuse Hair, Sign of Nature's Bounty Page 1 25 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Madame Celnart's Works of the Toilet. Literature of 
Beauty. Cares of the Toilet. Arts of Coiffure and 
Lacing. How to Hold a Needle Gracefully. Iris Powder 
for Tresses. Arts of Italian Women. Depilatory used 
in Harems. Spirit of Pyretic. Herbs used by Greek 
Women. Mexican Pomade. Dusky Perfumed Marbles. 
Lost Perfumes. Sultanas' Lotion. Brilliant Paste for 
Keck and Arms. Baking Enamel 134. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Last of the Rose. Weighing in the Balances. To 
Love and to be Loved. The Enigma of Love. Its Power 
over the Lot of Men. Inspiration in the Looks. The 
Land of Spring. The Duchess of Devonshire. Women 
at and after Thirty. Training of Emotion. Warming 
the Voice. Crow's-feet at the Opera. Bohemian Arsenic 
Waters. Recipe from Madame Vestris. Milk of Roses. ' 
Sweet-oils. Opera-dancers' Prescription for Restoring 
Suppleness 146 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Fearful Malady of which no one Dies. Esprit Odon- 
talgique. Gray Pastilles. Important to Smokers. 
Mouth Perfumes. Care of the Breath. Directions for 
Bathing. Perfumes for the Bath. Bazin's Pate. Qual- 



CONTENTS. V 

ity of Soaps. Bathing and Anointing the Feet. Nicety 
of Stockings. Delicate Shoe Linings. Feet of Pauline 
Bonaparte Page 1 f>5 

CHAPTER XVI. 

64 The Leaves are Full of Joy." Nobility of the Body.' 
Its Possibilities. Brain and Heart Dependent on it. 
Physical Culture Imperative in America. Our Contempt 
of Health. Easier to be Magnificent than Clean. Dis- 
tilled Water for Every Use. Substitute for Stills. Vapor 
and Sulphur Baths. Bran Baths. Oatmeal for the 
Hands. Frequency of Baths. Remedies for Hepatic 
Spots 1 G5 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Banting System. A Quaint Author. Trials of Corpu- 
lency, : Result of Living on Sixpence a Day. Indifference 
of Doctors. A Wise Surgeon. Relation of Glucose to 
Obesity. Diet for Stout People. No Starch, no Sugar. 
Losing Flesh at the Rate of a Pound a Week. " Human 
Beans." Humors of Banting's Tract. His Gratitude. 
Honors to Dr. Harvey. One Day with Dives, the Next 
with Lazarus. Bromide of Ammonia 175 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

A Letter. Trials of a Plain Woman. The Best Husband 
in the World. Burdock Wash for the Hair. For Chil- 
dren's Hair. Oil of Mace as a Stimulant. To Restore 
Color to the Hair. Sperm-oil a Powerful I lair Restorer. 
The Cheapest Hair-Dye. Cure for Chilblains. Loose 
Shoes the Cause of Corns. Pyroligneous Acid for Corns. 
Turpentine and Carbolic Acid for Soft Corns 185 

CHAPTER XIX. 

A Talk about Complexions. Delicate Lotion. Cause of 
Rough Faces. Sun Painting and Bleaching. Court 



VI CONTENTS. 

Ladies Refusing to Wash their Faces. Experiments 
with Olive-tar. Consumption and Clear Faces. Rev. 
W. H. H. Murray on Olive-tar. Porcelain Women. 
Drawing Humors to the Surface. What is to be Done 
for the Weak Women ? Page \ 92 

CHAPTER XX. 

Sulphur Baths. Bleaching Old Faces. Experiments in 
Bathing. Cautions. Need of Public Baths. Their 
Proper Prices. Method of Giving Sulphur Vapor-baths. 
Hot Baths for Hot Weather. Russian Baths at Home. 
Improvements Needed in Public Baths. What they 
Should be. What they Are. The Russian Vapor- 
bath. After -Sensations. Brightness and Lightness of 
Health. Reverence for the Physical. Influence of 
Bathing on the Nerves and Passions. Necessity of 
Public Baths. ." 1 ( J8 

CHAPTER XXI. 

xJovices of Uneasy- Age. Bread Paste and Court-plaster 
to Conceal Wrinkles. Accepting the Situation. Plain 
Women and Agreeable Toilets. Examples. The Rec- 
tor's Daughter. Dressing on .Two Hundred a Year. 
Ecru Linen and White Nansook. A Senator's Wife. 
A Washington Success. Dull, Thin Faces. Hay-colored 
Hair. Advantages of Lining Rooms with Mirrors. . . 212 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Physical Education of Girls. A Woman's Value in the 
World. High-bred Figures. Antique Races. Inspira- 
tion of Art not Vanity. The Trying Age. Dress, 
Food, and Bathing for Young Girls. A Veto on Close 
Study. Braces and Backboards. Never Talk of Girls' 
Feelings. Exercise for the Arms. Singing Scales with 
Corsets off. Development of the Bust. Open-work Cor- 
sets the Best. The Bayaderes of India and their Forms. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

The Delicacy due Young Girls. A Frank but Needeu 
Caution. Care of the Figure after Nursing Page 224 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Hands and Complexions. Preparing fur Parties. Kenning 
Hough Faces. Carbolic Baths. Chalk and Cascarilla. 
Glycerine Wash. School-girls' Flushed Hands and 
Faces. To Soften the Hands. Red Noses. Secrets cf 
Making-up. Cologne for the Eyes. Cosmetic Gloves. 
To Impart a Brilliant Complexion 238 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Women's Looks and Nerves. A Low-toned Generation. 
Children and their Ways. Brief Madness. Women in 
the Woods. Singing. Work well done the Easiest. 
Sleep the Remedy for Temper. Hours for Sleep. The 
Great Medicines Sunshine, Music, Work, and Sleep, 24:7 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Changing Wigs and Chignons. Matching Braids. Friz- 
zing the Hair. Crimping-pins. Blonde Hair-pins. 
W T hat Colors Hair. Bleaching Tresses. Sulphur Paste. 
Foxy Locks. Freshening Switches 257 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Hair and Complexion. Black Dyes. Persian Blue-Black. 
Peroxide of Hydrogen. Chloride of Gold. Transient 
Dyes ". . . . 1 2G7 



THE UGLY-GIRL PAPERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Woman's Business to be Beautiful. How to Acquire a Clear 
Complexion. Regimen for Purity of the Blood. Carbon- 
ate of Ammonia and Powdered Charcoal. Stippled Skins. 
Face Masks. Oily Complexions. Irritations of the 
Skin. Lettuce as a Cosmetic. Cooling Drinks. Sun 
Baths. Bread and Molasses. 

THE first requisite in a woman toward pleas- 
ing others is that she should be pleased with 
herself. In no other way can she attain that 
self-poise, that satisfaction, which leaves her 
at liberty to devote herself successfully to 
others. 

I appeal to the ugly sisterhood to know if 
this is not so. Could a woman be made to 
believe herself beautiful, it would go far to- 



10 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 



ward making her so. Those hopeless, shrink- 
ing souls, alive with devotion and imagination, 
with hearts as fit to make passionate and wor- 
shiped lovers, or steadfast and inspiring hero- 
ines, as the fairest Venus of the sex, need not 
for an instant believe there is no alleviation 
for their ease, no chance of making face and 
figure more attractive and truer exponents of 
the spirit within. 

There is scarcely any thing in the history 
of women more touching than the homage 
paid to beauty by those who have it not. No 
slave among her throng of adorers appreciated 
more keenly the beauty of Eecamier than the 
skeleton-like, irritable Madame De Chateau- 
briand. The loveliness of a rival eats into a 
girl's heart like corrosion ; every fair curling 
hair, every grace of outline, is traced in lines 
of fire on the mind of the plainer one, and re- 
produced with microscopic fidelity. It is a 
woman's business to be beautiful. She rec- 
ommends every virtue and heroism by the 
grace which sets them forth. Women of gen 



11 

ius are the first to lay the crown of wom- 
anhood on the head of the most beautiful. 
Mere fashion of face and form are not 
meant by beauty, but that symmetry and 
brightness which come of physical and spirit- 
ual refinement. Such are the heroines of 
Scott, Disraeli, and Bulwer, as inspiring as 
they are rare. Toward such ideals all women 
yearn. 

Who will say that this most natural feeling 
of the feminine heart may not have some ful- 
fillment in the first thirty years of life ? This 
limit is given because the latest authorities in 
social science assert that woman's prime of 
youth is twenty -six, moving the barriers a 
good ten years ahead from the old standard 
of the novelist, whose heroines are always in 
the dew of sixteen. In the very first place, 
one may boldly say that beauty, or rather fas- 
cination, is not a matter of youth, and no 
woman ought to sigh over her years till she 
feels the frost creeping into her heart. Men 

of the world understand well that a woman's 

2 



12 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

wit is finest, and her heart yields the richest 
wealth, when experience has formed the fair 
and colorless material of youth. A sweet girl 
of seventeen and a high-bred beauty of thirty, 
if well preserved, may dispute the palm. I 
do not mean to decry rose-buds and dew. 
One hardly knows which to love them for 
most their loveliness or their briefness. But 
women who look their thirties in the face 
should not lay down the sceptre of life, or 
fancy that its delights for them are over. 
They are young while they seem young. 

Then we may boldly set about renovating 
the outward form, sure that Nature will re- 
spond to our efforts. The essence of beauty 
is health ; but all apparently healthy people 
are not fair. The type of the system must be 
considered in treatment. The brunette is usu- 
ally built up of much iron, and the bilious 
^cretion is sluggish. The blonde is apt to 
be dyspeptic, and subject to disturbances of 
the blood. From these causes result freckles, 
pimples, and that coarse, indented skin 



LIMIT OF APPETITE. 13 

pled with punctures, like the tissue of pig- skin 
a fault of many otherwise clear complex- 
ions. 

The fairest skins belong to people in the 
earliest stage of consumption, or those of a 
scrofulous nature. This miraculous clearness 
and brilliance is due to the constant purgation 
which wastes the consumptive, or to the issue 
which relieves the system of impurities by one 
outlet. We must secure purity of the blood 
by less exhaustive methods. The diet should 
be regulated according to the habit of the 
person. If stout, she should eat as little as 
will satisfy her appetite ; never allowing her- 
self, however, to rise from the table hungry. 
A few days' resolute denial will show how 
much really is needed to keep up the strength. 
When recovering from severe nervous prostra- 
tion, years ago, the writer found her appetite 
gone. The least morsel satisfied hunger, and 
more produced a repugnance she never tried 

to overcome. She resumed study six hours a 



day and walked two miles every day from the 



14 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

suburbs to the centre of the city, and back 
again. Breakfast usually was a small saucer 
of strawberries and one Graham cracker, and 
was not infrequently dispensed with altogether. 
Lunch was half an orange for the burden of 
eating the other half was not to be thought 
of; and at six o'clock a handful of cherries 
formed a plentiful dinner. Once a week she 
did crave something like beef -steak or soup, 
and took it. But, guiding herself wholly by 
appetite, she found with surprise that her 
strength remained steady, her nerves grew 
calm, and her ability to study was never bet- 
ter. This is no rule for any one, farther than 
to say persons of well - developed physique 
need not fear any limitation of diet for a 
time which does not tell on the strength and 
is approved by appetite. Never eat too much ; 
never go hungry. 

For weak digestion nothing is so relished or 
strengthens so much as the rich beef tea, or 
rather gravy, prepared from the beef-jelly sold 
by first-rate grocers. Tins is very different 



DIFFERENCE IN DIET. 15 

from the extracts of beef made by chemists. 
The condensed beef prepared by the same 
companies which send out the condensed 
milk is preferable, in all respects, as to taste 
and nourishment. A table - spoonful of this 
jelly, dissolved by pouring a cup of boiling 
water on it, and drank when cool, will give as 
much strength as three fourths of ^i pound of 
beef-steak broiled. For singers and students, 
who need a light but strengthening diet, noth- 
ing is so admirable. 

Nervous people, and sanguine ones, should 
adopt a diet of eggs, fish, soups, and salads, 
with fruit. This cools the blood, and leaves 
the strength to supply the nerves instead of 
taxing them to digest heavy preparations. 
Lymphatic people should especially prefer 
such lively salads as cress, pepper-grass, horse- 
radish, and mustard. These are nature's cor- 
rectives, and should appear on the table from 
March to November, to be eaten not merely 
as relishes, but as stimulating and beneficial 
food. They stir the blood, and clear the eye 



16 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPERS. 

and brain from the humors of spring. Nerv- 
ous people should be more sparing of these 
fiery delights, and eat abundantly of golden 
lettuce, which contains opium in its most deli- 
cate and least injurious state. The question 
of fat meat does not seem satisfactorily set- 
tled. I should compound by using rich soups 
which contain the essence of meats, and sup- 
ply carbon by salad oil and a free use of nuts 
or cream. Plump, fair people may let oily 
matters of all kinds carefully alone. Thin 
ones should eat vegetables if they can find a 
cook who knows how to make them palatable. 
It is strange that in this country, which pro- 
duces the finest vegetables, fit for the envy of 
foreign cooks, not one out of a hundred knows 
how to prepare them properly. People who 
are anxious to be rid of flesh should choose 
acids, lemons, limes, and tamarinds, eat spar- 
ingly of dry meats, with crackers instead of 
bread, and follow strictly the advice now 
given. 

To clear the complexion or reduce the size, 



TONICS INEFFECTUAL. 17 

the blood must be carefully cleansed. Two 
simple chemicals should appear on every toi- 
let-table the carbonate of ammonia and pow- 
dered charcoal. No cosmetic has more fre- 
quent nses than these. The ammonia must 
be kept in glass, with a glass stopper, from 
the air. French charcoal is preferred by phy- 
sicians, as it is more finely ground, and a large 
bottle of it should be kept on hand. In cases 
of debility and all wasting disorders it is val- 
uable. To clear the complexion, take a tea- 
spoonful of charcoal well mixed in water or 
honey for three nights, then use a simple pur- 
gative to remove it from the system. It acts 
like calomel, with no bad effects, purifying the 
blood more effectually than any thing else. 
But some simple aperient must not be omit- 
ted, or the charcoal will remain in the system, 
a mass of festering poison, w T ith all the impuri- 
ties it absorbs. After this course of purifica- 
tion, tonics may be used. Many people seem 
not to know that protoxide of iron, medicated 
wine, and "bracing" medicines are useless 



18 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 



when the impurities remain in the blood. 
The use of charcoal is daily better understood 
by our best physicians, and it is powerful, and 
simple enough to be handled by every house- 
hold. The purifying process, unless the health 
is unusually good, must be repeated every 
three months. We* absorb in bad food and 
air more unprofitable matter than nature can 
throw off in that time. If diet and atmos- 
phere were perfect, no such aid would be 
needed; but it is the choice between a verv 
great and a small evil in existing conditions. 
A free use of tomatoes and figs is, by the way, 
recommended, to maintain a healthy condition 
of the stomach, and the seeds of either should 
not be discarded. 

The most troublesome task is to refine a 
stippled skin whose oil-glands are large and 
coarse. There may not be a pimple or freckle 
on the face, and the temples may be smooth, 
but the nose and cheeks look like a pin-cush- 
ion from which the pins have just been 
drawn. Patience and many applications are 



LETTUCE FOR THE FACE. 19 

necessary ^ for one must, in fact, renew the 
skin. 

The worst face may be softened by wearing 
a mask of quilted cotton wet in cold water 
at night. Roman ladies used poultices of 
bread and asses' milk for the same purpose ; 
but water, and especially distilled water, is all 
that is needful. A small dose of taraxacum 
every other night will assist in refining the 
skin. But it will be at least a six weeks' 
work to effect the desired change ; and it will 
be a zealous girl who submits to the discom- 
fort of the mask for that length of time. The 
result pays. The compress acts like a mild 
but imperceptible blister, and leaves a new 
skin, soft as an infant's. Bathing oily skins 
with camphor dries the oil somewhat, when the 
camphor would parch nice complexions. The 
opium found in the stalks of flowering lettuce 
refines the skin singularly, and may be used 
clear, instead of the soap which sells so high. 
Rub the milky juice collected from broken 
stems of coarse garden lettuce over the face 



20 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

at night, and wash with a solution of ammonia 
in the morning. 

Blondes who are unbeautiful are apt to 
have divers irritations of the skin, which their 
darker neighbors do not know. People of 
this type also have a tendency to acid stom- 
achs, the antidote for which is a dose of am- 
monia, say one quarter of a spoonful in half a 
glass of water, taken every night and morning. 
This also prevents decay of the teeth and 
sweetens the breath, and is less injurious than 
the soda and magnesia many ladies use for 
acid stomachs. In summer the system should 
be kept cool by bathing at night and morning, 
and by tart drinks containing cream of tartar. 
Small quantities of nitre, prescribed by the 
physician, may be taken by very sanguine per- 
sons who suffer with heat ; but pale complex- 
ions should seek the sun when its power is not 
too great, and be careful, of all things, to avoid 
a chill. This deadens the skin, paints blue cir- 
cles round the eyes, and leaves the hands an 
uncertain color. 



MAGNOLIA COMPLEXIONS. 21 

These precautions may seem burdensome, 
but they all have been practiced by those who 
prize beauty. Nothing is so attractive, so sug- 
gestive of purity of mind and excellence of 
body, as a clear, fine-grained skin. Strong 
color is not desirable. Tints, rather than col- 
ors, best please the refined eye in the com- 
plexion. Some mothers are so anxious to se- 
cure this grace for their daughters that they 
are kept on the strictest diet from childhood. 
The most dazzling Parian could not be more 
beautiful than the cheek of a child I once 
saw who was kept on oat-meal porridge for 
this effect. At a boarding-school, I remember, 
a fashionable mother gave strict injunctions 
that her daughter should touch nothing but 
brown bread and syrup. This w r as hard fare ; 
but the carmine lips and magnolia brow of 
the young lady were the envy of her school- 
mates, who, however, were not courageous 
enough to attempt such a regime for them- 
selves. 



THIS UGLY -GIRL PAPERS, 



CHAPTER II. 

Care of the Hair. Children's Hair. When to Cut ifc 
Ammonia Washes. Glycerine and Ammonia. Po- 
mades. How to Brush the Hair. Cutting the Ends. 
German Method of Treating the Hair. Southernwood 
Pomade. Hair-Dyes. Dyeing the Eyebrows and Eye- 
lashes. Superfluous Hair. Depilatories. Washes for 
the Eyelashes and Eyebrows. 

ST. PAUL approved himself no less a con- 
noisseur of female beauty than a censor of de- 
corum when he wrote, " If a woman have long 
hair, it is a glory to her." This is in no wise 
inconsistent with the other apostolic passage 
which discourages ornate hair - dressing, for 
abundant shining hair needs less care to ar- 
range than a scanty crop that must be dis- 
posed to the best advantage. The woman 
whose magnificent chevelure reaches to her 
waist, thick as one's wrist when tightly bound, 
needs no braid nor cataract, finger-puff nor 



WOMEN'S DOWRY OF IIAIK. 23 

snow-curl, nor band of gold or amber to crown 
herself. Every girl ought to have such hair. 
Mothers should remember that such gifts of 
nature form a dowry which has no little 
weight in the incidents of a woman's life, and 
should cultivate assiduously the locks of their 
daughters. It is not best to keep them closely 
cut: after five years they should never be 
touched by scissors, save to clip the ends once 
a month, as hereafter explained, but should be 
smoothly braided in long Marguerite plaits, 
the most convenient style, unless the mother 
is ambitious of seeing her pet's hair in curls. 
Hardly any locks will resist good discipline, 
if taken in the downy stage of infancy and 
submitted to papillotes. It is a mistaken no- 
tion that a luxuriant growth of hair in child- 
hood weakens the head. Nature is not in the 
habit of providing superfluities. The Breton 
women are noted for their magnificent hair, 
which is allowed to grow from childhood. 
The barbarity of the fine comb should be 
abolished in civilized nurseries, and a daily or 



24: 



THE UG-LY-GIRL PAPERS. 



semi-weekly wash with ammonia or soap sub- 
stituted, with a thorough brushing afterward. 
A child's head is too tender for any rasping; 
process; even knotted snarls should be cut 
rather than pulled out. Send tow-headed chil- 
dren into the snn as much as possible, that its 
rays may affect every particle of the iron in 
the blood, and change the flaxen colors to 
more agreeable shades. 

When the hair has been neglected, cut it to an 
even length, and wash the scalp nightly with soft 
water into which ammonia has been poured. 
This may be as strong as possible at first, so 
that it does not burn the skin. Afterward 
the proportions may be three large spoonfuls 
of ammonia to a basin of water. Apply with 
a brush, stirring the hair well while the head 
is partially immersed. Do this at night, so 
that it may have a chance to dry, for nothing 
is so disagreeable as hair put up wet and 
turned musty. Wring and wipe it thorough- 
ly, then comb and shake out the tresses in a 
draft of air till nearly dry, when it may be 



STIMULUS FOE THE 1IAIK. 25 

done up in a cotton net. Night-caps heat the 
head and injure hair. Ammonia is the most 
healthful and efficient stimulus known for the 
hair, and quickens its growth when nothing 
else will do so. A healthy system will supply 
oil enough for the hair if the head is kept 
clean. If the scalp is unnaturally dry, a mixt- 
ure of half an ounce of carbonate of am- 
monia in a pint of sweet-oil makes the most 
esteemed hair invigorator. Glycerine and am- 
monia make a delicate dressing for the hair, 
and will not soil the nicest bonnet. Pomades 
of all kinds are voted vulgar, and justly. The 
only excuse for their use is just before enter- 
ing a sea bath, when a thorough oiling of the 
hair prevents injury from salt water. It 
should be speedily washed off with a dilution 
of ammonia. 

When a growth of young hair is established, 
it ought to lengthen at least eight inches a 
year in a vigorous subject. Hair is an index 
of vitality. The women of the tropics, with 
their abounding health, have luxuriant cheve- 



26 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

lures. Among Spanish and South American 
women hair a yard long, in a coil as thick as 
the wrist, is the rule, and not the exception. 
The warmth of those latitudes favors the se- 
cretions, and stimulates every organ to its full- 
est development. To obtain like results, we 
must try to obtain the same conditions of lux- 
uriant health. A good circulation is essential 
to fineness and pleasing color of the hair. 
The scalp must be stimulated by frequent 
brushing, as well as by the ammonia bath. 
A lady of fashion decreed one hundred strokes 
of the brush to be given her celebrated locks 
daily, and those who have tried the experi- 
ment find that it is not at all too much. Giv- 
en quickly, this number occupies three min- 
utes in bestowing, and surely this is little 
enough time to give a fine head of hair. Once 
a month the ends of the hair should be cut, to 
remove the forked ends, which stop its growth. 
The patrons of a certain New York school of 
high repute will remember the young daugh- 
ter of an Albany gentleman, whose wonderful 



VEILED IN A FLOOD OF HAIR. 27 

hair was the pride of the establishment. The 
child was about ten years old, and her heavy 
tresses reached literally to the floor. She was 
not unfrequently shown to visitors as a phe- 
nomenon, veiled in this flood of hair. On in- 
quiry, it was found that no peculiar treatment 
was given it beyond cutting the ends regular- 
ly every month for years. 

An old authority gives the following as the 
German method of treating the hair. The 
women of that country are known to have re- 
markably luxuriant locks : Once in two weeks 
wash the head with a quart of soft water in 
which a handful of bran has been boiled and 
a little white soap dissolved. Next rub the 
yolk of an egg slightly beaten into the roots of 
the hair; let it remain a few minutes, and 
wash it off thoroughly with pure water, rinsing 
the head well. Wipe and rub the hair dry 
with a towel, and comb it up from the head, 
parting it with the lingers. In winter do all 
this near the flre. Have ready some soft po- 
matum of beef marrow, boiled with a little 



28 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

almond or olive oil, flavored with mild per- 
fume. Eub a small quantity of this on the 
skin of the head after it has been washed as 
above. This may be efficient, but in this age 
women prefer the cleanlier method of stimu- 
lating the hair without pomade. 

If any ladies are as fond of stirring up cos- 
metics and washes as were the wife and daugh- 
ters of the Vicar of Waketield, they may try 
these highly recommended recipes : 

The following is said to be an excellent curl- 
ing fluid : Put two pounds of common soap 
cut small into three pints of spirits of wine, 
and melt together, stirring with a clean piece 
of wood ; add essence of ambergris, citron, and 
neroli, about a quarter of an ounce of each. 

Eowland's Macassar Oil for the hair : Take 
a quarter of an ounce of the clippings of alka- 
net root, tie this in a bit of coarse muslin, and 
suspend it in a jar containing eight ounces of 
sweet-oil for a week, covering from the dust, 
Add to this sixty drops of the tincture of can- 
tharides, ten drops of oil of rose, neroli and 



INNOXIOUS HAIR-DYES. 29 

lemon each sixty drops. Let these stand three 
weeks closely corked, and you will have one 
of the most powerful stimulants for the growth 
of the hair ever known. 

Take a pound and a half of southernwood 
and boil it, slightly bruised, in a quart of old 
olive-oil, with half a pint of port-wine or spir- 
it. When thoroughly boiled, strain the oil 
carefully through a linen cloth. Repeat the 
operation three times with fresh southernwood, 
and add two ounces of bear's grease or fresh 
lard. Apply twice a week to the hair, and 
brush it in well. 

Where a hair-dye is deemed essential, the 
deplorable want may be met by this recipe, 
which lias the merit of being less harmful 
than most of the nostrums in use : Boil equal 
parts of vinegar, lemon-juice, and powdered 
litharge for half an hour, over a slow fire, in a 
porcelain-lined vessel. Wet the hair with this 
decoction, and in a short time it will turn 
black. 

Lola Montez gives a hair-dye which is said 



30 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

to be instantaneous, and as harmless as any 
mineral dye used. It is made from gallic 
acid, ten grains; acetic acid, one ounce; tinc- 
ture of sesquichloride of iron, one ounce. Dis- 
solve tlie gallic acid in the sesquichloride, and 
add the acetic acid. Wash the hair with soap 
and water, and apply the dye by dipping a 
fine comb in it and drawing through the hair 
so as to color the roots thoroughly. Let it 
dry ; oil and brush. 

White lashes and eyebrows are so disagree- 
ably suggestive that one can not blame their 
possessor for disguising them by a harmless 
device. A decoction of walnut-juice should 
be made in the season, and kept in a bottle for 
use the year round. It is to be applied with 
a small hair pencil to the brows and lashes, 
turnin^ them to a rich brown, which harmon- 

e5 

izes with fair hair. It may be applied to the 
edo-e of the hair about the face and neck, when 

o 

that is paler than the rest. Let me repeat 
that the best remedy for ill-used tresses is 
strict care ; glossy, vitalized tresses, kept in or- 



HOW TO WEAR RED HAIR. 31 

der by constant brushing, assume by degrees 
a better color. It is a mistake to soak red 
hair with oil in the hope of making it darker; 
it should be kept wavy and light as possible, 
to show off the rich lights and shadows with 
which it abounds. The sun has a good effect 
on obnoxious shades, of hair if it is otherwise 
well attended to, and red or white locks should 
be worn in floating masses, waved by fine plait- 
ing at night, or by crimping-pins, which do not 
injure hair unless worn too tight. Pale hair 
shows a want of iron in the system, and this is 
to be supplied by a free use of beef-steaks, 
soups, pure beef gravies, and red wines. Salt- 
water bathing strengthens the system, and acts 
favorably on the hair. As to color, hardly any 
shade is unlovely when luxuriant and in a live- 
ly condition. It is only when diseased or un- 
cared for that any color appears disagreeable. 
Sandy hair, when well brushed and kept glossy 
with the natural oil of the scalp, changes to a 
warm golden tinge. I have seen a most ob- 
noxious head of this color so changed by a 



32 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

few years' care that it became the admiration 
of the owner's friends, and could hardly be 
recognized as the withered, fiery locks once 
worn. 

Superfluous hair is as troublesome to those 
who have it as baldness is to others. There 
is no way to remove it but by dilute acids or 
caustics, patiently applied time after time, as 
the hair makes its appearance. The mildest 
depilatories known are parsley water, acacia- 
juice, and the gum of ivy. It is said that nut- 
oil will prevent the hair from growing. The 
juice of the milk-thistle, mixed with oil, ac- 
cording to medical authority, prevents the hair 
from growing too low on the forehead, or 
straggling on the nape of the neck. As Wil- 
lis says, Nature often slights this part of her 
masterpiece. Muriatic acid, very slightly re- 
duced, applied with a sable pencil, will destroy 
the hair; and, to prevent its growing, the part 
may be often bathed with strong camphor or 
clear ammonia. The latter will serve as a de- 
pilatory, but causes great pain, and must be 



DEPILATORIES. 33 

quickly washed off. The depilatories sold in 
the shops are strong caustics, and leave the 
skin very hard and unpleasant. Bathe the 
upper lip, or other feature afflicted with su- 
perfluous hair, with ammonia or camphor, as 
strong as can be borne, and the hair will die 
out in a few weeks. Moles, with long hairs 
in them, should be touched with lunar caustic 
repeatedly. A large, dark mole on a lady's 
neck was reduced to an unnoticeable white 
spot, but the nitrate of silver caused a sore 
for a week in place of the mole. Care should 
be taken to brush the back hair upward from 
childhood, to prevent the disfiguring growth 
of weak, loose hairs on the neck. Fine clean 
wood-ashes, mixed w r ith a little water to form 
a paste, makes a tolerable depilatory for 
weak hair, without any pain. Strong pearlash 
washes also kill out poor hair. 

A clever scientific man suggested that the 
growth of hair might be hastened by frequent- 
ly applying electric currents to it, or bathing 
it in electrical water. Similar experiments 



34: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

have been made on vital tissues with remark- 
able success. But this theory must be left for 
further development. 

The eyelashes may be improved by delicate- 
ly cutting off their forked and gossamer points, 
and anointing with a salve of two drachms of 
ointment of nitric oxide of mercury and one 
drachm of lard. Mix the lard and ointment 
well, and anoint the edges of the eyelids night 
and morning, washing after each time with 
warm milk and water. This, it is said, will 
restore the lashes when lost by disease. The 
effect of black lashes is to deepen the color of 
gray eyes. They may be darkened for theat- 
ricals by taking the black of frankincense, 
resin, and mastic burned together. This will 
not come off with perspiration. 



EDUCATION IN MANNERS. 35 



CHAPTER III. 

Elegance of Manner. Grace of the Latin Races. The 
Secret of Grace. Gliding Movement. Calisthenics. 
Erectness of Figure. Shoulder Braces. How to ac- 
quire Sloping Shoulders. Care of the Feet. The Art 
of Walking. Picturesque Carriage of Southern Women. 

WAS it not Madame de Genlis who de- 
scribed the education in manners under the 
old regime of France? In her memoirs she 
speaks of hating Paris, when she came from 
the provinces, for the ordeal she underwent 
there to fit her for polite society. She was 
taught, what she fancied she knew already, 
how to walk, and was placed in the stocks two 
or three hours a day to teach her the right po- 
sition of her feet in standing. A corset and 
back-board were provided to form an erect 
habit. Whether in her day or later ones, the 
elegancies of manner are not cultivated with- 
out sincere pains. Nature, indeed, creates 



36 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

some models of such refined proportions and 
such informing spirit that they fall at once 
into the curves of grace ; but these are meant 
for models, and happily nothing forbids those 
of lesser merit to attempt the same lesson. Are 
not some born masters of the piano, full-flown 
at once over the first difficulties of music? 
But does this hinder any pupil from six hours' 
daily drill, if need be, to grasp the same diffi- 
culties ? The one end is to be attained, wheth- 
er instantly or not; and in some cases the 
most laborious is by all means the most de- 
lightful player. Courage, then. The same 
thing is true of other efforts than those of the 
key-board ; and it is quite as certain that the 
woman who trains herself to be graceful will 
be so, as that the clumsy young pedant at the 
scales will, in time, rush victoriously through 
the "Shower of Pearls," the "Cascade of 
Roses," or any other drawing-room favorite 
of gelatinized octaves. 

For the first comfort, it must be owned that 
American women have the least natural grace 



SPANISH GIRL IN THE SENATE. 37 

of any nation in the world. English women 
are usually well trained in a sort of martinet 
propriety of attitude which suits their solid 
contours ; but neither Anglo-Saxon race knows 
an approach to those lengthened curves, those 
bends of every slender joint and supple mus- 
cle, which fill the eye in looking at a woman 
of Latin race. I watched a Spanish-American 
girl in the gallery of the United States Sen- 
ate one night, in order to seize, if possible, her 
charm of gesture. She was rounded, yet fine 
in figure, and seemed to be, as I can best 
phrase it, all muscle. No one could think of 
her bones as having any more stiffness than 
the pliant sprays of an elm. She leaned on 
the railing of the balcony, not straight forward 
as even the elegant and delicate diplomatic 
English ladies did, but lengthwise, as if reclin- 
ing; and the bend of her supple wrist, with 
the black and gold fan, was simply inimitable 
to an American woman. Those in transferable 
curves bewitched the eye even to pain ; but 
something was gained in that five minutes' 



38 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

study which I reduce to two points: Side- 
way movements and attitudes please more 
than those either forward or backward. The 
secret of grace is to teach every joint of the 
body to bend all that it can. 

Take the last point first, and you have all 
that you need to teach the finest grace. To 
the dumb-bells, to the calisthenic exercises and 
work as if you were qualifying yourself to be 
a contortionist at a circus. Vitalize every 
fibre, as the hot-blooded Southerner is vitalized, 
and the body will play into grace of itself. 

The first thing is the hardest to stand 
straight. Most people are satisfied indeed to 
attain this point of physical and polite culture, 
and never get beyond it. Erect stiffness is 
better than crookedness. To be admirable, the 
figure must be perfectly flat in the shoulders. 
ISTo projecting shoulder-blades, no curves are al- 
lowed here, however pleasing they may be else- 
where. A stout figure can hardly be unre- 
fined if it is flat behind. A pair of inelastic 
shoulder-braces must be called into requisi- 



INELASTIC SHOULDER-BRACES. 39 

tion ; and these should be made of coutille, or 
satin jean, two inches wide, and corded at the 
edge. Make them barely long enough to reach 
the belt of the skirts worn, and button on them. 
Set the shoulders perfectly flat against the 
wall, and find the distance between their 
blades; fasten a broad strap the same length 
not more than two inches, very likely by 
sewing it to the straps behind even with the 
lower edge of the scapula. This is the best, 
as well as the cheapest shoulder-brace to be 
found. If well proportioned, and all the meas- 
ure taken scant, it can not fail to draw the 
shoulders into place. Excellent teachers of 
physical training say that the will alone should 
be used to force one's self to stand straight. 
This is true of a person in perfect health. 
But round -shoulders often result from weak- 
ness or sedentary pursuits, against whose in- 
fluence it is useless to struggle ; and I would 
not debar any half-invalid from the luxury of 
the support given by a strict pair of braces. 
They relieve the heart and lungs by throwing 



40 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the weight of the chest on the back, where it 
belongs, instead of crowding it down on the 
breast. To correct the ugly rise of the shoul- 
ders which always accompanies curvature, and 
sometimes exists without it, weights must be 
used. Nothing is more nnfeminine than the 
straight line of shoulder, which properly be- 
longs to a cuirassier or an athlete. Some 
mothers make their young folks walk the floor 
with a pail of water in each hand, to give their 
shoulders a graceful droop. A substitute may 
be worn in one's room while at work, in the 
shape of an outside brace of triple gray linen, 
having two extra straps buckling round the 
tip of each shoulder, one long end reaching the 
belt, with a wedge-shaped lead or iron weight 
hooked on it. This is heroic practice, but ef- 
fectual ; and its pains are amply compensated 
by lines of figure which are the surest expo- 
nents of high breeding. 

The position of the feet is not to be neg- 
lected in the lesson of standing. The toes 
should be widely turned out, to balance well ; 



DISFIGUREMENTS. 41 

and if the foot is inclined to turn in, this may 
be remedied by having the boot heels made 
higher on the inside. This will throw th* 
foot into a position to develop the arched in' 
step. A crooked leg is a matter for surgical 
treatment; and in these days of curative in- 
genuity, with steel braces it will be but the 
work of a few months to bring the most awk- 
ward limb into shape. Those who have seen 
the wonders wrought with deformed children 
who have crooked limbs and bodies will con- 
sider it a simple matter to bring a partial dis- 
figuration under control. As to the size of the 
feet, sensible people will never be persuaded 
that any degree of pressure which can be 
borne without suffering is injurious. Nature 
knows how to protect herself. A clever old 
shoe-dealer gave as his experience that people 
w r ho always wear tight shoes never have corns. 
It is the alternation of tight and loose shoes 
that gives rise to these torments. 

The great-toe joint ought not to project be- 
yond the line of the foot. I know a zealous 



42 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

young girl who regularly screwed her bare foot 
up in a linen bandage before going to bed, to 
keep it in shape. For painful swelling of 
the feet in warm weather, no remedy is as 
effectual as an ice-cold foot-bath for live min- 
utes in the evening or when they are most 
troublesome. This, however, must never be 
taken without first wetting the head plenti- 
fully with ice-water, and keeping a cold band- 
age on it all the while. It is good to soak 
the feet for fifteen minutes in warm water at 
least twice a week. This keeps them elastic, 
and in delicate, pliant condition. 

An elegant carriage is the patent of nat- 
ure's nobility, and appears of itself when the 
body is held into proper attitudes, and made 
properly elastic by exercise. The great cause 
of all stiffness is want of exertion a general 
rustiness of all the limbs. To the slender 
child of the South the climate supplies a de- 
gree of relaxation and suppleness which dis- 
penses with the need of action. The womei. 
of South American colonies seldom walk for 



GKACE OF CAERIAGE. 43 

exercise, yet their movements are full of 
grace. The stimulus of thorough circulation, 
so potent and softening, can only be gained 
in our colder latitude by exertion. A lazy 
woman may be picturesque in a room or in a 
carriage, but never on foot. Americans have 
one-sided ideas of grace in walking. A wom- 
an as straight as a dart, who moves without 
any perceptible movement of the hips or limbs, 
is considered an excellent walker. But this 
unvarying rectitude is far from the poetry of 
motion. Watch the slight lialancement of a 
graceful French woman, and you will see an 
ease, a spontaneity, and variety of motion 
which set the former by comparison in the 
light of a bodkin out for a " constitutional." 
A fine walk is an affair of proper balance. 

A clever friend, who has spent more time 
in the study of women's ways and manners 
in different countries than one can think 
profitable, lias some unique views on the sub- 
ject of their walking. He says the haugh- 
ty w T ornen of Old Spain carry their weight 



44 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

mainly on the hips, which gives an inde- 
scribable stiffness of demeanor. Americans 
do the same, throwing the weight a little 
more on the thigh, without bending the knee. 
French women cany the weight on the calf 
of the leg, and the knee bends very much at 
each step, while the body is carried with the 
least ~balancement of the shoulders, and the 
head, so far from being held like a cockade, 
or the head of tongs, is easy. La tete degagee, 
les epaides tomlante is the rule for a good 
style. Try the difference of contracting the 
muscles in the calf of the leg in walking, with 
the knee bent sensibly at each step. The 
body involuntarily throws itself back, and a 
lightness of motion is the result, which is im- 
possible with the usual swing of the leg from 
the hips in the stiff walk of Saxon women. 
The same authority says that the far-famed 
serpentine glide of the Creole, which travelers 
admire and vainly try to describe, comes from 
a peculiar movement of the hips. The weight 
of the figure is thrown on the loins, and half 



UNDULATING WALK. 45 

of the body moves alternately at each step, not 
in a wriggle, as it is caricatured at the North, 
out with a soft turn of the shoulders corre- 
sponding, and a smoothness which betrays the 
sensuous temperament and luxurious physique. 
Such is the walk of the women of Venezuela, 
Bogota, and La Plata. Such a gait, however, 
would hardly be accepted in the Champs Ely- 
Bees as suggestive of high refinement. The 
women of Alabama and Georgia have traits 
enough of this walk to make them among the 
most graceful in the world, as far as carriage 
goes. The Creoles of the Gulf have this sinuous 
glide, betraying a flexibility of limb which we 
can scarcely imagine. To gain this pliancy, 
twisting movements of gymnastics are espe- 
cially suitable. Gyrations of each limb, the 
head and body, produce, in a few weeks' prac- 
tice, an enviable degree of elasticity, which 
gives the carriage something more than the 
up and down, forward and back, straight 
lines of motion with which ladies ordinarily 
favor us. A smooth, long step, the weight of 



46 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the body on the loins, where nature intend 
ed it should be, and the legs propelled from 
thence, without stiffness at the knee or ob- 
trusive motion of the hips, is, probably, the 
ideal of walking ; such as one finds both in a 
highly trained woman and in the untaught 
perfection of a South Sea Islander. 

I have spoken at length on the topic of 
walking, because its importance as an art of 
grace can not be overrated, and because it has 
a still deeper bearing on women's health. 
The training which secures an elegant car- 
riage is precisely that which counteracts the 
tendency to a dozen fatal relaxations at differ- 
ent points of the frame, and prevents their 
appearance. ISTo one ought to say that walk- 
ing brings on the disorders which blanch and 
wither feminine life. The cause is the fatal, 
inherited weakness of constitution, shown by 
either undue redness or pallor, by indolence 
or excitability, which is a slow decay from its 
first breath, and poisons the hopes and the 
loveliness of so many women. These doomed 



WALKING VerSUS WEAKNESS. 47 

beings must work out their own salvation, and 
make themselves anew in the effort. The 
weaknesses would develop whether they walk- 
ed or not. The care should be to adjust ex- 
ercise and nourishment, stimulus and rest, in 
due proportion. But the weak woman must 
have separate counsel, for she by no means 
comes under the head of these unpremeditated 
consultations. 



48 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

N. P. Willis as a Critic of Beauty. The Perfume of the 
Presence. Charm of Good Circulation. Chills are In- 
cipient Congestion. Paper Clothing. Luxuries of the 
Bath. A Substitute for Sea-Baths. To Secure Fra- 
grant Breath. Delicate Dentifrices. Fine Cologne. A 
List of Fragrance. 

WHEN Willis died, American society lost its 
great personal critic. No other writer shows 
such insight into the subtile elements of wom- 
en's beauty, or speaks so assuredly on points 
of mere outward attraction. That gentle and 
gracious critic who blesses the order of Old 
Bachelors dissects feminine manner with zest, 
but is not given to that mention of ear-locks 
and finger-tips which made " People I have 
Met" such a conserve of hints for the dress- 
ing-table. It is a pity such a connoisseur of 
feminine graces could not have taken half a 
hundred distinguished specimens into his train- 



PERSONAL PERFUME. 49 

ing to show the world such women as fill the 
ideal of a refined man of the world. Willis 
was susceptible to beauty wherever he found 
it : a perfect ear on the head of a plain coun- 
try girl would not miss the glance of this art- 
ist, and he betrays what single charms may 
rivet the regard of a man of taste a dozen 
times in those glorious sketches we never hope 
to see excelled. 

You remember one of his heroines was re- 
markable for the perfume w T hich exhaled from 
her person. We are not to suppose that this 
most fascinating gift was due to Coudray's 
sachets, or to hedyosima on her hair. From 
repeated experience, verified by that of very 
discerning and sensitive persons, it is af- 
firmed that certain people of fine organism 
and perfect health have a fragrance belong- 
ing to their presence like scent to a flower. 
One of the most powerful feminine novelists 
of the day said that she always knew when a 
favorite brother had been in a room by the 
slight indefinable perfume that followed him. 



50 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

His pillow breathed it, and his easy-chair, and 
it was perceived even by comparative stran- 
gers. I have known persons innocent of using 
perfume, whose fragrant presence was recog- 
nized by every one who came near them. In 
all cases this was accompanied by a bodily 
condition of perfect health and much mag- 
netic attraction. This may be named the first 
in that list of subtile personal properties which 
constitute the strongest and most enduring of 
physical charms, and which are not discussed 
with any proportion to their potency. We do 
not stop to ask what pleases us ; refinement 
attracts, sweetness detains us, and we are only 
too glad to lie under the spell. 

May a plain woman reach her hand for 
these gifts of pleasing ? Surely. They 
were meant to be nature's compensation for 
the lack of chiseled features and ruffled 
tresses. To reach this subtile refinement re- 
quires such preparation as the virgins under- 
went for the court of Ahasuerus : " Six months 
with oil of myrrh, and six months with sw^et 
odors" if not in kind, yet in care. 



THE LAW OF COMFORT. 51 

The secret of lively spirits, even temper, and 
magnetic % presence can never be attained in 
the world without a perfect circulation of the 
blood. It may be out of season to say that 
people often keep themselves too cold; but 
lay the hint away till next October, when 
the weather changes, and mark the facts. 
Our seasons are two thirds cold or chilly ; our 
habits are sedentary, which tends to reduce 
the force of the system ; as a people we are 
not of excitable temperament ; and yet stout 
men and hearty doctors, who go rushing 
through their business all day, complain be- 
cause women sit in overheated rooms, and can 
not endure draughts in the halls. There is 
but one answer to this : Nature is her own 
guide, and it is one of her laws that no 
creature can be uncomfortable in any way 
without losing by it. If the tone of the 
system is so low that a woman feels chilly in 
a room at seventy degrees, put the heat at 
once up to eighty, or higher, till she feels lux- 
uriously warm. Chilliness is a symptom to 



52 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

be most dreaded. When the blood forsakes 
the skin, it clogs the heart, the internal organs, 
and lays the train for those diseases of the 
time neuralgia, paralysis, rheumatism, and 
congestion. In fact, every person who suffers 
from one of these stupid chills is in a state of 
incipient congestion. How hateful is the mis- 
erable economy which stints fires in the raw 
days of May and September, because the cal- 
endar of household routine decrees that it is 
not the season for stoves and grates! Not 
less irritating is it to sit with a circle half 
shivering in a large parlor, because the full- 
blooded, active master of the house has decid- 
ed that it is nonsense to turn the heat on. The 
slow tortures such unfeeling people inflict on 
their innocent victims will be witnesses against 
them some day, to their great surprise. 

Even in summer many delicate persons 
find the skin always cold. Those who are so 
susceptible should never be without protec- 
tion. The most convenient is a sheet of tissue 
paper quilted in marcelline silk, and w r orn be- 



PAPER FOR UNDER WEAK. 53 

fcween the shoulders, the most sensitive point 
of the whole body for feeling cold. The com- 
fort of this slight device can hardly be imag- 
ined. Paper is a non-conductor of heat ? but 
porous enough to admit air, so that it never 
leaves the dampness of rubber or oil-silk pro- 
tectors. Even in winter the warmth of these 
slender linings exceeds that of a sheet of wad- 
ding. In the change of the year, when it is 
not cold enough for flannel, and one can not 
be comfortable without some extra clothing, 
this is just what is wanted. A sheet of quilted 
paper should be worn for the back, and one for 
the chest, the arms cased in the legs cut from 
old silk or thread stockings, which cling to the 
flesh, and keep it from the air better than any 
other article. Thus equipped, a delicate wom- 
an may face the subtle chills of spring and 
autumn without a shiver. Added warmth is 
not necessary about the trunk of the body till 
extreme cold weatheiv Clothes fit closely 
there, and the vital centres always generate 
most heat, so that only the extremities and 



54: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the upper part of the chest need protec- 
tion. 

The daily bath needs to be administered 
with some care. The value of hot bathing is 
hardly understood. In congested circulation 
nothing is so effective as a ten minutes' bath 
at eighty -five degrees, the water covering the 
body entirely, followed by a cold sponge-bath, 
quickly given, and immediate drying. Bath- 
towels are not half large enough as commonly 
made. They should be small sheets in size, like 
the real Turkish bath-towels used by the wom- 
en of Constantinople, which envelop the body, 
and dry it at once. A bath should never chill 
one, and the feelings may be safely trusted as 
guides in the matter. To a constitution strong 
enough to meet it, even though somewhat de- 
pressed at the time, nothing is so inviting as 
the stimulus of the cold bath, the instant's 
chill followed by the rush of warm blood all 
over the body. For weak systems an invig- 
orant is found, so simple and effective that 
the wonder is why it was not used long ago, 



AMMONIA BATHS. 55 

When the season or circumstances forbid a 
stay on the sea-coast, a substitute nearly if 
not quite as strengthening is found in an 
ammonia bath. A gill of liquid ammonia in 
a pail of water makes an invigorating solution, 
whose delightful effects can only be compared 
to a plunge in the surf. Weak persons will 
find this a luxury and a tonic beyond com- 
pare. It cleanses the skin, and stimulates it 
wonderfully. After such a bath the flesh feels 
firm and cool like marble. More than this, 
the ammonia purifies the body from all odor of 
perspiration. Those in whom the secretion is 
unpleasant will find relief by using a spoonful 
of the tincture in a basin of water, and wash- 
ing the armpits well with it every morning. 
The feet may be rid of odor in the same way. 
But what shall destroy that foe to senti- 
ment, that bane of all beauty, an offensive 
breath ? I can not imagine a woman could 
fall in love with Hyperion if he had this 
drawback. The suggestion of unrefinement 
and of physical disorder it gives would 



56 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

weigh against all the moral and intellectual 
worth which might lie behind 'it. The anti- 
dote, happily, is as simple as the evil is pre- 
vailing. With attention to the health, and 
brushing the teeth at least night and morn- 
ing, all besides that is needed to secure a 
sweet breath is to dissolve a bit of licorice 
the size of a cent in the mouth after us- 
ing the tooth-brush. This will even counter- 
act the effects of indigestion, and does not 
convey the unpleasant suggestion of cachous 
and spice, that they are used to hide an offense. 
Licorice has no smell, but it sweetens the mouth 
and stomach. A stick of it should be chipped 
for nse, and kept in a box on the toilette. 

A tincture which restores soundness to the 
gums is one ounce of coarsely powdered Pe- 
ruvian bark steeped in half a pint of brandy 
for a fortnight. Gargle the month night and 
morning with a teaspoonful of this tincture, 
diluted with an equal quantity of rose-water. 

For decaying teeth make a balsam of two 
scruples of myrrh in fine powder, a scruple of 



57 

juniper gum, and ten grains of rock alum, 
mixed in honey, and apply often. 

It is useful also to chew a bit of orris-root, 
which Browning says Florentine ladies love to 
use in mass-time ; or to wasli the mouth with 
the tincture of myrrh, or take a bit of myrrh 
the size of a hazel-nut at night, or a piece of 
burned alum. 

A very agreeable dentifrice is made from 
an ounce of myrrh in fine powder and a little 
powdered green sage, mixed with two spoon- 
fuls of white honey. The teeth should be 
washed with it every night and morning. 

To clean the teeth, rub them with the ashes 
of burned bread. It must be thoroughly 
burned, not charred. 

Spite of all that is said against it, charcoal 
holds the highest place as a tooth-powder. It 
has the property, too, of opposing putrefac- 
tion, and destroying vices of the gums. It 
is most conveniently used when made into 
paste with honey. 

A fine Cologne is prepared from one gal- 



58 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

Ion of deodorized alcohol, or spirit obtained 
from the Catawba grape, which is nearly 
if not quite equal to the grape spirit which 
gives Farina Cologne its value. To this is add- 
ed one ounce of oil of lavender, one ounce of 
oil of orange, two drachms of oil of cedrat, one 
drachm of oil of neroli or orange flowers, one 
drachm of oil of rose, and one drachm of am- 
bergris. Mix well, and keep for three weeks 
in a cool place. 

To this list of fragrance add a recipe for 
common Cologne to use as a toilet water. 
It is oil of bergamot, lavender, and lemon, each 
one drachm; oil of rose and jasmine, each ten 
drops ; essence of ambergris, ten drops ; spirits 
of wine, one pint. Mix and keep well closed 
in a cool place for two months, when it will 
be fit for use. Ladies will be grateful for this 
who have known what trouble it is to find a 
refreshing Cologne which does not smell like 
cooking extract with lemon or vanilla. If 
with these hints a woman can not keep her- 
self fragrant and lovely- in person, her case 
must need the help of the physician. 



FAlli JEZEBEL. 59 



CHAPTER V. 

Morals of Paint and Powder. Antique Toilet Arts. - 
Washington Ladies. Making Up the Face. Whitening 
the Arms. Tints of Kouge. To Make French Kouge. 
Milk of Roses. Greuze Tints. Coarse Complexions 
Caused by Powder. Color for the Lips. Crystal and 
Gold Hair Powder. Dyeing Blonde Wigs. To Darken 
the Hair. Champjigne and Black- Walnut Bark. Doom 
of the Complexion Artist. 

THE time has gone by when it was a matter 
of church discipline if a woman painted her 
face or wore powder. Nor is it any serious 
reflection on her moral character if she go 
abroad with her complexion made up in the 
forenoon, however it may call her taste in 
question. All who paint their faces and look 
forth at their windows are not visited with 
hard names, else the parlor of .every house on 
the side- streets of New York might have its 

Jezebel waiting the dinner-hour and the re- 
5 



60 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

turn of masculine admirers. George declares 
he could never own a wife who used powder ; 
and yet Annie comes down, looking innocent 
in her pink bows, with a little white bloom on 
each temple, and a suspicious odor of Lubin's 
Violet floating round her. I don't think 
George meditates divorce on that account. 
There is something noble and ingenuous in 
the sight of an uncovered skin ; but we rec- 
oncile ourselves to the pearly falsehood, ac- 
cepting the situation with the false hair, not 
so gray as it is in front, and the, long, artificial- 
shaped nails, and the cramped feet. Every 
body knows they are inventions, and accepts 
them as such, like paste brilliants at a theatre. 
The arts of the toilet are as old as Thebes. 
The painted eye of desire, the burning cheek 
and dyed nails, were coeval witli the wisdom 
of Alexandria. Of old the Roman ladies 
used the fine dust of calcined shells and the 
juices of plants to restore their freshness of 
color. There is no end to the modern con- 
trivances for the same purpose. Crushed ge- 



LADY WASHINGTON GERANIUMS. 01 

ranium leaves, and the petals of artificial roses 
which contain carmine, friction with red flan- 
nel, and the juice of strawberries, are homely 
substitutes for rouge. The women of the 
South are more given to the use of cosmetics 
than their Northern sisters. Perhaps Washing- 
ton sets the example to all the states ; for no- 
where else is seen such liberal use of paint and 
powder, skillfully applied, as at the capital. 
There women paint for the breakfast-table, and 
carry the deception every where. The Span- 
ish-American ladies make the absurd mistake 
of supposing their rich complexions and dark 
eyes are not more enticing to Northern eyes 
than our own cold beauties ; so, by the help 
of toilet bottles, they present faces like Lady 
Washington geraniums from nine in the morn- 
ing till they ice themselves to frozen white- 
ness for the evenings. Whited sepulchres is 
the phrase forever ringing in one's head at 
sight of this folly. What indignation has 
seized one at sight of Madame - , the witty 
and enviable, who had the weakness to mask 



62 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

her lustrous, tropical, Murillo colors which 
enchanted every Northern heart with poor 
plaster of burned oyster-shells ! It was very 
well for the Treasury blondes, who looked like 
human peaches till one saw them close, to dab- 
ble in white and pink. It suited their style. 
For these superb Creoles and Sevillians, never ! 

Both from principle and preference, this 
book discountenances paint and powder. It 
believes that a woman needs no other cos- 
metics than fresh air, exercise, and pure wa- 
ter, which, if freely used, will impart a rud- 
dier glow and more pearly tint to the face 
than all the rouge and lily-white in Christen- 
dom. 

But if she must resort to artificial beauty, 
let her be artistic about it, and not lay on 
paint as one would furniture polish, to be rub- 
bed in with rags. The best and cheapest 
powder is refined chalk in little pellets, each 
enough for an application. Powder is a pro- 
tection and comfort on long journeys or in 
the city dust. If the pores of the skin must 



HOW TO USE POWDER. 65 

be filled, one would prefer clean dust, to be- 
gin with. A layer of powder will prevent 
freckles and sun-burn when properly applied. 
It cools feverish skins, and its use can be 
condoned when it modifies the contrast be- 
tween red arms and white evening dresses. 
In amateur theatricals it is indispensable, the 
foot-lights throwing the worst construction on 
even good complexions. In all these cases it 
is worth while to know how to use it well. 
The skin should be as clean and cool as possi- 
ble, to begin. A pellet of chalk, without any 
poisonous bismuth in it, should be wrapped in 
coarse linen and crushed in water, grinding it 
well between the fingers. Then wash the 
face quickly with the linen, and the wet pow- 
der oozes in its finest state through the cloth, 
leaving a pure white deposit when dry. Press 
the face lightly with a damp handkerchief to 
remove superfluous powder, wiping the brows 
and nostrils free. This mode of using chalk 
is less easily detected than when it is dusted 
on dry, 



64 THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS. 

The best foundation for Lubin's powder is 
gained by soaping the face well, and taking 
care not to rinse off all the smooth, glossy feel- 
ing it leaves. Dry the face without wiping, 
and the thinnest layer of oil is left, which 
holds the dry powder, without that mealy look 
which Lubin is apt to leave. To whiten the 
arms for theatricals, rub them first with glvc- 
erine, not letting the skin absorb it all, and 
apply chalk. The country practice is to sub- 
stitute a tallow candle for the glycerine; but 
0111*8 is a progressive age. At least the moral 
feeling leads one to spare an escort's coat- 
sleeve. 

Rouge needs consideration before rashly ap- 
plying. There are more tints of complexion 
than there are roses, and one can only be suc- 
crssful by observing the natural colors of a' 
beauty of her own type. Some cheeks have- a 
wine-like, purplish glow, others a transparent 
saffron tinge, like yellowish -pink porcelain: 
others still have clear, pale carmine; and the 
rarest of all, that suffused tint like apple bios- 



THE BANE OF BISMUTH. 65 

soms. By making her own rouge a lady can 
graduate her pallet that is to say, her cheeks 
at pleasure. The following preparations 
have the virtue, at least, of being harmless, 
which can not be said of most paints and pow- 
ders. Red-lead, bismuth, arsenic, and poison- 
ous vegetable compounds are used in the com- 
mon cosmetics. Bismuth is most frequent; 
and its least effect is to give the cheeks it has 
whitened a crop of purplish pimples, which 
would iridicate that the wearer was freely 
" dispoged" to the same tastes as Sairey Gamp. 
The hideously coarse complexion of many 
public singers is partly due to their use of bis- 
in.itli powder. An old dispensatory gives the 
following formula for a harmless cosmetic un- 
der the name of Almond Bloom : 
, Take of Brazil dust, one ounce ; water, 
three pints ; boil, strain, and add six drachms 
of isinglass, two of cochineal, three of borax, 
and an ounce of alum ; boil again, and strain 
through a fine cloth. Use as a liquid cos- 
metic. 



66 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

Devoux French rouge is thus prepared: 
Carmine, half a drachm ; oil of almonds, one 
drachm ; French chalk, two ounces. Mix. 
This makes a dry rouge. 

The milk of roses is made by mixing four 
ounces of oil of almonds, forty drops of oil of 
tartar, and half a pint of rose-water with car- 
mine to the proper shade. This is very sooth- 
ing to the skin. Different tinges may be given 
to the rouge by adding a few flakes of indigo 
for the deep black-rose crimson, or mixing a lit- 
tle pale yellow with less carmine for the soft 
Greuze tints. All preparations for darkening 
the eyebrows, eyelashes, etc., must be put on 
with a small hair-pencil. The "dirty-finger" 
effect is not good. A fine line of black round 
the rim of the eyelid, when properly done, 
should not be detected, and its effect in soften-, 
ing and enlarging the appearance of the eyes 
is well known by all amateur players. A 
smeared, blotchy look conveys an unpleasant 
idea of dissipation. 

For the finger-tips, alkanet makes a good 



CRYSTAL AND GOLD HAIR POWDER. 67 

stain. An eighth of an ounce of clippings 
tied in coarse muslin, and soaked for a week 
in diluted alcohol, will give a tincture of love- 
ly dye. The finger - tips should be touched 
with jewelers' cotton dipped in this mixture. 

Hair-powder is made from powdered starch, 
sifted through muslin, and scented with oil 
of roses in the proportion of twelve drops to 
the pound. Crystal powder is glass dust, ob- 
tained from factories, or powdered crystallized 
salts of different kinds. A golden powder 
may be procured by coloring a saturated so- 
lution of alum bright yellow with turmeric, 
then allowing it to crystallize, and reducing 
it to coarse powder. This certainly has the 
merit of cheapness. 

Color for the lips is nothing more than cold 
cream, with a larger quantity of wax than 
usual melted in it, with a few drachms of car- 
mine. For vermilion tint use a strong in- 
fusion of alkanet instead of poisonous red- 
lead. Keep the chippings for- a week in the 
almond-oil of which the cold cream is made, 



68 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

and afterward incorporate with wax and 
spermaceti. Always tie alkanet in muslin 
when it is used for coloring purposes. 

When blonde w T igs are not attainable for 
theatricals, a switch of dark hair may be 
bleached by soaking in strong vinegar, and 
colored by an infusion of turmeric in Cham- 
pagne, or by the liquor obtained from the tops 
of potatoes ready to flower, mixed with water, 
suffering it to steep twenty-four hours. This 
is too poisonous ever to be used on the head 
with safety. 

The walnut stain for skin or hair is made 
precisely like that for cloth, by boiling the 
bark say an ounce to a pint of water for 
an hour, slowly, and adding a lump of alum 
the size of a thimble to set the dye. Apply 
with a little brush, such as is used in water- 
colors, to the lashes and eyebrows, or with a 
sponge to the hair. Wrap the head in an old 
handkerchief when going to sleep, or the moist- 
ure of the hair will stain the pillow-cases. 

But one tiling must be said : the woman 



LOST BLOOM AND GLOSS. 69 

who has once taken to painting and coloring 
must go on painting and coloring ; rarely, if 
ever, does the complexion regain its bloom, 
the skin its smoothness, or the hair its gloss. 
In most cases the operator must go on deep- 
ening the hue, and in no case can he or she 
be sure of the shade or tint which successive 
applications will produce. 



70 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPKK9. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Recamier's Training. Diana of Poitiers, Bath. High 
Beauty of Maturity. The Worth of Beauty. George 
Eliot on Complexions. Dr. Cazenave. Barley Paste for 
the Face. Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies. To Re- 
move Pimples. Cascarilla Wash. Varnish for Wrinkles. 
Acetic Acid for Comedones. To Remove Mask. Lady 
Mary Montagu. Habit of Italian Ladies. Wash of 
Vitriol. 

THE motto that used to haunt our souls 
over copy-books, " Xo excellence without great 
labor/' is as true about personal improvement 
as any thing else. Few celebrated beauties 
have gained their fame without use of those 
arts which must be the earliest of all, since we 
have no record of their first teaching the 
arts of the toilette. Madame Kecamier, who 
exercised more power by her beauty than any 
woman of modern times, was bred by a most 
careful mother, versed in all the mysteries of 



KEFINED BEAUTY. 71 

training. Her exceeding delicacy of com- 
plexion arose from the protection she gave it, 
never going out except in her carriage, and 
scarcely knowing what it was to set foot to 
the ground. Margaret of Anjou and Mary 
Stuart, in earlier times, were wise as ser- 
pents in the magic of the toilet, disdaining 
neither May clew nor less simple lotions for 
cheeks whereon the eye of the world was to 
dwell. Diana of Poitiers bequeathed a leg- 
acy of value to her sex in commending the 
use of the rain-water bath, which preserved 
her own beauty till, at the age of sixty -five, no 
one could be insensible to her. Ninon de 
1'Enclos left the same testimony. It is intol- 
erable that women have not the ambition to 
preserve their health and charms to the latest 
date, and give up their cases so shamefully 
soon. An intelligent maturity chisels and re- 
fines the face to a high and feeling beauty; 
that is to the attractions of youth what the 
aristocratic head of Booth would be beside a 
pink-and-white lady-killer of society. This se- 



72 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

rene and finished expression should find phys- 
ical favor to accompany it. K"or is this to be 
gained, as many say, by leading a passive, emo- 
tionless life. People of vivid feeling are the 
youngest. Their quick alterations of mood 
make the face clean cut, yet do not settle it in 
uniform furrows. Both grief and joy, yearn- 
ing passion and utter renunciation, are needed 
to sculpture finely the statues for remem- 
brance. Xo one professing the loftiest aims, 
who understands human nature, can despise 
the care of personal beauty when, combined 
with moral worth, its influence is so irresist- 
ible. Look at the portraits of those renowned 
as moral and intellectual heroes ; it will be 
found their greatness was rarely associated 
with physical repulsiveness, and though their 
faces in the conflicts of life grew seamed 
and worn, yet in youth they must have been 
more than ordinarily remarked for beauty of 
a high order Columbus and Galileo and 
Whitefield will do for examples. And if 
the reader go through the range of feminine 



VALUE OF A CLEAR COMPLEXION. 73 

celebrities, from the poets to missionary biog- 
raphies, "with portrait of the original," not 
one face in ten will dispute what I have 
said. 

Least of all let any woman heed smiling 
scorn of her weakness in taking pains to se- 
cure a good complexion the real clearness 
and color, if she eschew the coarse pretense 
of powder and paint. George Eliot, with her 
masculine sense, bears witness to the irresisti- 
ble tendency to associate a pure soul with a 
lucent complexion. No woman can be disa~ 
greeable if she have this saving claim ; and 
there will be no apology for adding a few es- 
timable recipes for the purpose from the col- 
lection of a foreign physician, Dr. Cazenave. 
He recommends the following as a composi- 
tion for the face : 

Three ounces of ground barley, one ounce 
of honey, and the* white of one egg, mixed to 
a paste, and spread thickly on the cheeks, nose,, 
and forehead, before going to bed. This must 
remain all night, protecting the face by a soft 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

handkerchief, or bits of lawn laid over the 
parts on which the paste is applied. Wash it 
off with warm water, wetting the surface with 
a sponge, and letting it soften while dressing 
the hair or finishing one's bath. Repeat 
nightly till the skin grows perfectly fine and 
soft, which should be in three weeks, after 
which it will be enough to use it once a week. 
Always wash the face with warm water and 
mild soap, rubbing on a little cold cream when 
exposing one's self to the weather. This paste 
was used by the Romans. With this, care 
must be taken to bathe daily in warm water, 
using soap freely, toning the system with a 
cold plunge afterward, if one can bear it. 

For pimples use this recipe : thirty-six grains 
of bicarbonate of soda, one drachm of glycer- 
ine, one ounce of spermaceti ointment. Hub 
on the face ; let it remain for a quarter of an 
hour, and wipe off all but a slight film with a 
soft cloth. 

The best wash for the complexion given is 
cascarilla powder, two grains; muriate of am- 



WRINKLES AND VITRIOL. 75 

monia, two grains ; emulsion of almonds, eight 
ounces : apply with fine linen. The frightful 
discoloration known as maslz is removed by a 
wash made from thirty grains of the chlorate 
of potash in eight ounces of rose-water. Wrin- 
kles are less apparent under a kind of varnish 
containing thirty-six grains of turpentine in 
three drachms of alcohol, allowed to dry on 
the face. The black worms called comedones 
call forth the simple specific of thirty-six grains 
of subcarbonate of soda in eight ounces of dis- 
tilled water, perfumed with six drachms of es- 
sence of roses. But I prefer the advice of a 
clever home physician, who lately told me that 
he removed comedones from the faces of girls 
who applied to him for the purpose by touch- 
ing the head of each with a fine hair-pencil 
dipped in acetic acid a nice operation, as the 
acid must only touch the black spot, or it will 
eat the skin. Remembering that Lady Mary 
Wortley Montagu quoted the habit of Italian 
ladies to renew and refine their complexions 

by a wash of vitriol, I begged to know how 
6 



76 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

such a heroic application could safely be made. 
The answer was that muriatic acid, sixty per 
cent, strong, diluted in twelve parts of water, 
might be used as a wash, and gradually eat 
away the coarse outer envelope of the skin, if 
any one had fortitude to bear a slow cautery 
like this. Lady Mary records that she had to 
shut herself up most of a week, and her face 
meantime was blistered shockingly ; but after- 
ward the Italian ladies assured her that her 
Complexion was vastly improved. On the 
whole, the typhoid fever is preferable as au 
agent for clearing the complexion, being per- 
haps less dangerous and more effective. 



GHLNING PALLOR. 77 



CHAPTER VII. 

Shining Pallor. Lustrous Faces. Golden Freckles. Ti- 
ger-Lily Spots. Sun Photographs. Nitre Removes 
Freckles. Old English Prescription. For Yachting. 
Almond-Oil. Buttermilk as a Cosmetic. Rosemary and 
Glycerine. Lotion for Prickly Heat. For Musquitoes. 
Protecting Hair from Sea Air. Fashionable Gray Hair. 
Dark Eyes and Silver Hair. To Restore Dark Hair. 
Bandoline. Cold Cream. Almond Pomade. For 
Skin Diseases. Sulphurous Acid. 

THE summer heats, which make nature love- 
ly, are the bane of our fair-skinned Northern 
girls. Southern frames receive the glowing 
warmth, and grow paler and paler, because 
giving a matter-of-fact explanation of a beau- 
tiful appearance the surface of the skin is 
cooled by the perspiration, and the blood re- 
treats to the central veins. The " shining pal- 
lor'' which poets love on the faces of their 
favorite creations is the sign and effect of con- 
centrated passion of any kind in a quick, elec- 



78 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

trie nature. I disbelieved in the expression a 
long time, classing it with the "marble flush" 
and such freaks of nature in novels ; but the 
peculiar look has come under my eye more 
than once. It is a very striking one, as if the 
light came from within a lustrous, elevated 
expression, too ethereal and of the spirit to be 
merely high-bred. It is one of the refine- 
ments Nature gives to her ideal pieces of hu- 
manity, and nothing coarse lurks in the crea- 
tion of the one who presents it. The South- 
ern pallor is quite different a dead but clear 
olive, very admirable when the skin is line. 
Northern paleness is relieved rather than dis- 
figured by a few golden freckles. They are 
more piquant than otherwise ; and girls with 
the pure complexion w r hich attends auburn, 
blonde, and brown hair ought to consider them 
as caprices of nature to blend the hues of 
bright, warm hair and snowy skin. When as 
large, and almost as dark as the patches on the 
tiger-lily, every one will find them something 
to get rid of with dispatch. Freckles indicate 



ENGLISH CUCUMBER COSMETIC. 79 

an excess of iron in the blood, the sun acting 
on the particles in the skin as it does on indel- 
ible ink, bringing out the color. A very sim- 
ple way of removing them is said to be as fol- 
lows : 

Take finely powdered nitre (saltpetre), and 
apply it to the freckles by the finger moistened 
with water and dipped in the powder. When 
perfectly done and judiciously repeated, it will 
remove them effectually without trouble. 

An old English prescription for the skin 
is to take half a pint of blue skim-milk, 
slice into it as much cucumber as it will 
cover, and let it stand an hour; then bathe 
the face and hands, washing them off with 
fair water when the cucumber extract is dry. 
The latter is said to stimulate the growth 
of hair where it is lacking, if well and fre- 
quently rubbed in. It would be worth while 
to apply it to high foreheads and bald crowns. 

Rough skins, from exposure to the wind in 
riding, rowing, or yachting, trouble many la- 
dies, who will be glad to know that an appli- 



80 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

cation of cold cream or glycerine at night, 
washed off with fine carbolic soap in the morn- 
ing, will render them presentable at the break- 
fast-table, without looking like women who 
follow the hounds, blowzy and burned. The 
simplest way to obviate the bad effects of too 
free sun and wind, which are apt on occasion 
to revenge themselves for the neglect too oft- 
en shown them by the fair sex, is to rnb the 
face, throat, and arms well with cold cream or 
pure almond-oil before going out. With this 
precaution one may come home from a berry- 
party or a sail without a trace of that ginger- 
bread effect too apt to follow those pleasures. 
Cold cream made from almond-oil, with no 
lard or tallow about it, will answer every end 
proposed by the use of buttermilk, a favorite 
country prescription, but one which young la- 
dies can hardly prefer as a cosmetic on ac- 
count of its odor. 

A delicate and effective preparation for 
rough skins, eruptive diseases, cuts, or ulcers is 
found in a mixture of one ounce of glycerine, 



CAKBOLIC BALM. 81 

half an ounce of rosemary-water, and twenty 
drops of carbolic acid. In those dreaded irri- 
tations of the skin occurring in summer, such 
as hives or prickly heat, this wash gives sooth- 
ing relief. The carbolic acid neutralizes the 
poison of the blood, purifies and disinfects the 
eruption, and heals it rapidly. A solution of 
this acid, say fifty drops to an ounce of the 
glycerine, applied at night, forms a protection 
from musquitoes. Though many people con- 
sider the remedy equal to the disease, constant 
use very soon reconciles one to the creosotic 
odor of the carbolic acid, especially if the pure 
crystallized form is used, which is far less over- 
powering in its fragrance than the common 
sort. Those who dislike it too much to use 
it at night, will find the sting of the bites al- 
most miraculously cured and the blotches re- 
moved by touching them with the mixture in 
the morning. This is penned with grateful 
recollection of its efficiency after the bites of 
Jersey musquitoes a few nights ago. Babies 
and children should be touched with it in re- 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

duced form, to relieve the pain they feel from 
insect bites, but do not know how to express 
except by worrying. Two or three drops of 
attar of roses in the preparation disguises the 
smell so as to render it tolerable to human be- 
ings, though not so to musquitoes. 

Ladies who find that sea air turns their hair 
gray, or who are fearful of such a result, should 
keep it carefully oiled with some vegetable oil ; 
not glycerine, as that combines with water too 
readily to protect the locks. The recipe for 
cold cream made with more of the almond-oil, 
so as to form a salve, is not a bad sea-dressing 
for the hair, and the spermaceti and wax ren- 
der it less greasy than ordinary preparations. 
Animal pomades grow rancid, and make the 
head most unpleasant to touch and smell. 

Many preparations are given to restore the 
color to dark hair when it is lost through ill 
health or over-study. The fashionables to- 
day, with true taste, admire gray hair when in 
profusion, and deem it distinguished when ac- 
companied by dark eyes, to which the contrast 



TRAGACANTH AND ROSE-WATER. 83 

adds a piercing lustre. But those who consider 
themselves defrauded of their natural tints may 
use this recipe : Tincture of acetate of iron, 
one ounce ; water, one pint ; glycerine, half an 
ounce; sulphuret of potassium, five grains. 
Mix well, and let the bottle remain uncovered 
to pass out the foul smell arising from the po- 
tassium. Afterward add a few drops of am- 
bergris or attar of roses. Rub a little of this 
daily into the hair, which it will restore to its 
original color, and benefit the health of the 
scalp. 

Ladies are annoyed by the tendency of their 
hair to come out of crimp or curl while boat- 
ing or horseback-riding. The only help is to 
apply the following bandoline before putting 
the hair in papers or irons : A quarter of an 
ounce of gurn-tragacantli, one pint of rose-wa- 
ter, five drops of glycerine ; mix and let stand 
overnight. If the tragacanth is not dissolved, 
let it be half a day longer; if too thick, add 
more rose-water, and let it be for some hours. 
When it is a smooth solution, nearly as thin as 



84 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

glycerine, it is fit to use. This is excellent foi 
making the hair curl. Moisten a lock of hair 
with it, not too wet, and brush round a warm 
curling-iron, or put up in papillotes. If the 
curl come out harsh and stiff, brush it round 
a cold iron or curling-stick with a very little 
of the cosmetic for keeping stray hair in place, 
or cold cream. To the recipe given in the last 
chapter another is added, of perhaps finer pro- 
portions: Oil of sweet almonds, five parts; 
spermaceti, three parts ; white wax, half a part ; 
attar of roses, three to five drops. Melt togeth- 
er in a shallow dish, over hot water, strain 
through a piece of muslin when melted, and 
as it begins to cool beat it with a silver spoon 
till quite cold and of a snowy whiteness. It 
is well to rub it smooth on a slab of marble 
or porcelain before putting in glass boxes to 
keep. For the hair use seven parts of almond- 
oil to the other proportions named. The se- 
cret of making tine cold cream lies in stirring 
and beating it well all the time it is cooling. 
Those who have the misfortune to contract 



THE LAST EESORT. 85 

cutaneous disorders arising from exposure to 
the contact of the low and degraded and 
charitable persons sometimes run narrow risks 
of this kind or from scorbutic affections or 
the fumes of certain medicines, each and any of 
which are liable to produce roughness and in- 
flammation of the skin, will be glad of a speedy 
and certain cure for their affliction. It is a 
wash of sulphurous acid (not sulphuric), diluted 
in the proportion of three parts of soft water 
to one of the acid, and used three or four times 
a day till relieved. I knew a young lady 
whose fine complexion was ruined by the 
fumes of medicine she administered to her 
grandmother, whom she tended with, religious 
care ; and, thinking there may be others in 
like case, hasten to give this prescription. Sufi 
rosa all parasites on furniture, human beings, 
or pets are quickly destroyed by this applica- 
tion. 



86 THE UGLY-GIEt, PAPERS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Service of Beauty. Not for Vanity, but Perfection. Eye- 
brows of Petrarch's Laura. Fashionable Baths. Trim- 
ming the Eyelashes. Luxury of the Toilet. Its Magnet- 
ic Influence. A Safe Stimulant. Amateurs of the Toi- 
let. Cosmetic Gloves. To Refine the Skin of the Shoul- 
ders and Arms. Sulphate of Quinine for the Hair. For 
the Eyebrows and Eyelashes. A Harmless Dye. To Re- 
move Sallowness. A Hint for Stout People. Perfumed 
Bathing-powder. 

IT is a wonder that so few educated people 
address themselves to the service of beauty in 
the human form. It is refined to study dra- 
peries or design costumes for the adornment 
of the body, but not to develop the perfection 
of the body itself. Hair-dressers, perfumers, 
and tailors find ample consolation for being 
the ninth part of men, or something less, in 
public estimation, since the world finds their- 
work a necessity, and amply repays it. Who 
make fortunes faster among the working-classes 



LUXURIOUS BATHS. 87 

than those who minister to the desire for 
beauty, let. us call it, rather than the severer 
name of vanity? The arts of the toilet are 
advanced to the rank of a profession abroad. 
English fashion journals declare this in their 
advertisements. Establishments in London 
and at fashionable watering-places offer bright- 
ly furnished parlors where one may enjoy the 
luxurious soothing of every appliance of the 
toilet in succession. The warm bath, in all 
the appealing pleasure of marble, porcelain, 
and gold, instead of dingy oil - cloths and 
reeking zinc basins, gives place to the deft 
hands of the hair-bather and the chiropodist, 
and these to the dresser, who arranges the 
locks, quickly and artificially dried, in the 
most elegantly simple style. Then comes the 
cosmetic artist, who removes blotches and 
specks from the face with quick acids, laves 
it with soothing washes, or applies emollient 
pastes which leave soft freshness behind. The 
vulgarity of paint and enamel is not allowed 
in these establishments, though the operators 



88 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

have good knowledge of all secrets of their 
art. Innoxious dyes are used as novices never 
can apply them, superfluous hairs are removed, 
and eyebrows and eyelashes are cared for by 
the most skillful hands. The former have ev- 
ery unnecessary hair removed, and are thinned 
to the penciled line they form in the portraits 
of Venetian ladies, who secured this peculiar 
charm in the same way. If I could only find 
out how Petrarch's Laura trimmed her eye- 
brows, and give the method to my readers ! 

With a pair of fairy-like scissors the lashes 
are trimmed a hair-breadth, and brushed with 
sable pencils conveying an ointment which in- 
creases their growth. The nails are polished, 
and the hands indued with soft and perfumed 
oils which leave no trace. Picture the luxury 
of such a place and such attention, instead of 
the frowzy rooms and careless servants of a 
common hair-dressing saloon ! The magnetic 
benefit of such operations ought to count for 
much in elegant physical culture. It. unmis- 
takably soothes the system, and freshens its 



GIKLS HELPING EACH OTHER. 89 

powers better than any narcotic stimulant. 
More than one of the most brilliant writers of 
the time is in the habit of bathing and mak- 
ing a full toilet before composition, feeling 
its magic influence on the mind in rendering 
one's thoughts bright and happy. 

But blessed water and simples, chemicals 
and strokings, do their work in stone-ware and 
top bedrooms as well as in baths lined with 
porcelain behind the portiere of a Pompadour 
dressing-room. Clever girls can do much for 
each other in these matters ; and let me hope 
no one will have to ask more than sixteen peo- 
ple before finding a friend with nerve enough 
to trim her eyelashes for her, as an ambitious 
maiden once did. A fresh handful of pre- 
scriptions for these amateurs is taken from 
Paris authorities. 

Cosmetic gloves for which there is such 
demand are spread inside with the following 
preparation : The yolks of two fresh eggs 
beaten with two teaspoonfuls of the oil of 
sweet almonds^ one ounce of rose-water, and 



90 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPEK8. 

thirty-six drops of tincture of benzoin. Make a 
paste of this, and either anoint the gloves with 
it, or spread it freely on the hands and draw 
the gloves on afterward. Of course there is no 
virtue in the gloves save as they protect the 
hands from drying or soiling the bed-linen. 

A paste for the skin of the shoulders and 
arms is made from the whites of four eggs 
boiled in rose-water, with the addition of a 
grain or two of alum, beaten till thick. Spread 
this on the skin and cover with old linen. 
Wear it overnight, or all the afternoon before 
a party where one desires to appear in full 
dress. This cosmetic gives great firmness and 
purity to the skin, and may be used to ad- 
vantage by persons having soft, flabby flesh. 

A wash to stimulate the growth of hair in 
case of baldness is made from equal parts of 
the tincture of sulphate of quinine and aro- 
matic tincture. 

For causing the eyebrows to grow when 
lost by fire, use the sulphate of quinine five 
grains in an ounce of alcohol. 



HARMLESS HAIR DYE. 91 

For the eyelashes, five grains of the sulphate 
in an ounce of sweet almond-oil is the best 
prescription ; put on the roots of the lashes 
with the finest sable pencil. This must be 
lightly applied, for it irritates the eye to fin- 
ger it. 

The best dye is this French recipe, which is 
seen to be harmless at a glance : Melt togeth- 
er, in a bowl set in boiling water, four ounces 
of white wax in nine ounces of olive-oil, stir- 
ring in, when melted and mixed, two ounces 
of burned cork in powder. This will not take 
the dull bluish tinge of metallic dyes, but 
gives a lustrous blackness to the hair like life. 
To apply it, put on old gloves, cover the shoul- 
ders carefully to protect the dress, and spread 
the salvy preparation like pomade on the head, 
brushing it well in and through the hair. It 
changes the color instantly, as it is a black 
dressing rather than a dye. A brown tint 
may be given by steeping an ounce of walnut 
bark, tied in coarse close muslin, in the oil for 
a week before boiling. The bark is to be had 



92 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPI^RS. 

at any large drug-store, for about thirty cents 
an ounce. 

The recipes which follow will be of special 
value in the warm days of early spring. The 
first contains nearly all the vegetable medi- 
cines in common use for purifying the blood, 
and will prevent the lassitude and bilious 
symptoms which overcloud many a sweet 
spring day. When made by one's own hand, 
so that the purity and excellence of the ingre- 
dients can be insured, the mixture is far bet- 
ter than most of the blood-purifiers and tonics 
prescribed by the faculty. It is given here 
because it removes the sallowness and un- 
healthy iris hues of the complexion at a sea- 
son when a girl's cheek should wear its bright- 
est, clearest flame. 

Half an ounce each of spruce, hemlock, and 
sarsaparilla bark, dandelion, burdock, and yel- 
low dock, in one gallon of water ; boil half an 
hour, strain hot, and add ten drops of oil of 
spruce and sassafras mixed. When cold, add 
half a pound of brown sugar and half a cup 



SASSAFRAS FOR EMBONPOINT. 93 

of yeast, Let it stand twelve hours in a jar 
covered tight, and bottle. Use this freely as 
an iced drink. This is a good recipe for the 
root beer which New - Yorkers like to taste 
during warm months. 

People inclined- to embonpoint feel the bur- 
den of mortality oppressive during the first 
heats of the calendar. They will be glad to 
hear from a hill-country doctor, whose praise 
is in many households, that a strong decoction 
of sassafras drank frequently will reduce the 
flesh as rapidly as any remedy known. Take 
it either iced or hot, as fancied, with sugar if 
preferred. It is not advisable, however, to 
take this tea in certain states of health, and 
the family physician should be consulted be- 
fore taking it. A strong infusion is made at 
the rate of an ounce of sassafras to a quart of 
water. Boil it half an hour very slowly, and 
let it stand till cold, heating again if desired, 
and keeping it from the air. 

A trouble scarcely to be named among re- 
fined persons is profuse perspiration, which 



94 THE UGLY - GIRI/ PAPERS. 

ruins clothing and comfort alike. For this it 
is recommended to bathe the feet, hands, and 
parts of the body where the secretion is great- 
est with cold infusion of rosemary, sage, 
or thyme, and afterward dust the stockings 
and under-garinents with a mixture of two 
and a half drachms of camphor, four ounces 
of orris-root, and sixteen ounces of starch, the 
whole reduced to impalpable powder. Tie it 
in a coarse muslin bag, and shake it over the 
clothes. This makes a very fine bathing-pow- 
der. 



TRANSFORMATION OF PLAIN WOMEN. 95 



CHAPTER IX. 

Hope for Homely People. Two Vital Charms. The Way 
to Live. Sunrise and Open Air. Bleached by the Dawn. 
Live at Sunny Windows. In Balconies and Parks. 
Christiana's Breakfast. Brown Steak and Good-humor. 
True Bread. Device for Stiff Shoulders. Corsets and 
Girdles. The Latter more Needed. How to be Pleased 
with One's Self. 

Is there such a being as a hopelessly home- 
ly woman ? In the light of modern appliances, 
study the faces and figures one meets on a 
journey from the sea-board to the interior, 
and confess that there are few fatally ugly 
women. On the railway I often amuse my- 
self, in default of better things, by consider- 
ing how hygiene, cosmetics, and good taste in 
dress would transform the common-looking 
women about one into charming and even 
striking personages. In most of them, all that 
is wanting is strength of expression and a clear 



96 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

complexion, two tilings with which no woman 
can be wholly unattractive. The one is the 
sign of mental, the other of physical health. 
No wonder nature makes them so winning. 
To show what I mean, let ns mention some 
common faults, and their antidotes. Nothing- 
is more delightful than pulling our neighbors 
to pieces, with a good motive for it. 

Christiana is over thirty no reason in the 
least why she should not be as admired as a 
three days' rose, for one of the most beautiful 
women in New York, whom every one is in- 
fatuated with, is over sixty. Yet nobody thinks 
of Christiana's looks, for the simple reason 
that she has given np thinking of them her- 
self believing her poor skin can not be im- 
proved, nor the stiff, high carriage of her 
shoulders be changed. The depth of her eyes 
and her really good color are lost with these 
defects. To judge how the remedies should 
be applied, scrutinize her entire mode of liv- 
ing. Sunrise, in January or June, and she is 
not np! This will never serve a candidate 



OPEN AIR AT SUNKISE. 97 

for beauty. The first rays of the sun, the 
purity of early air, have as potent an effect 
on the complexion as the noon* rays on the 
webs of linen in the bleaching -ground. By 
all means, if one must rob daylight for sleep, 
take the hours from ten to three, but see the 
fires in the east from out-of-doors, even if your 
head touched the pillow only two hours be- 
fore. I don't believe in any special morality in 
getting up early, but I do know its benefits 
on nerves and circulation of the blood. There 
is a tonic in the dew-cool air, a lingering of 
wight's romance, that stirs while it soothes the 
blood like a fine magnetic hand. 

But getting up and staying in the house 
won't improve one's complexion. How much 
of her rose-and-lily face the English peasant 
\voiiwn owes to her walk to the reaping-field 
at daybreak is well known. After the first 
soft days of February and March there is noth- 
ing to hinder Christiana from reading her 
prayer-book or morning paper on the porch in 
the sunlight, if she choose to do this rather 



98 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

than rake the dead leaves from the grass, 
sweep the steps, or do something to stir her 
laggard blood. If it is cold, let her plant her- 
self at the sunniest window, sew, run her ma- 
chine, lounge, and eat there, till she is no more 
afraid of sunshine than of any other blood re- 
lation. Our women want to imitate French 
sense, and sit in the balconies and parks to do 
their work. When they lose the detestable 
vice of self-consciousness that saps American 
well-being in all ways, they will be able to 
live at their casements, sewing, singing, read- 
ing, as thoughtless and unnoticed as the white 
doves soaring above them where the sunshine 
is widest. It is matter of custom merely. 

But Christiana's breakfast is ready by this 
time, and we will see what she eats. Coffee : 
well, housekeepers buy the ready-ground cof- 
fee now, and it is mixed trash, wanting the 
heartiness of a good pure cup, but no great 
harm at worst. Meat: do you call that bit 
the width of two fingers, crisped, greased at 
one end, raw and bleeding at the other, fit 



MATERIALS OF BEAUTY. 99 

tenance for a woman who is to grow, work, 
walk, dance, and sing to-day ? She is made to 
live neither on leather nor raw meat. Cook a 
slice of thick beef -steak as quickly as possible 
till the color is changed all the way through 
without drying any of the juice. The albu- 
men of the blood must be coagulated before 
meat is fit for human stomachs, and proper 
cooking means something more than mere 
warming through, and a great deal less than 
crisping. Now let at least a quarter of a 
pound of this browned and fragrant sacrifice 
be cut for this young woman better if she 
eat half a pound to be converted into ener- 
getic work and Christian good-humor in the 
course of the day. One, two, three, four slices 
of fried potato withered in fat ! And this is 
what some people call nourishment ! Put on 
her plate two baked potatoes of unimpeachable 
quality poor potatoes are poison and let 
each be the size of her small fist. "Where are 
the tomatoes, the celery, the artichokes, salads 
and sauces ? She has tomatoes, three bits in 



100 TOE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

a tiny saucerette, as if it held some East In- 
dian condiment. There ought to be a saucer 
piled with them, or some savory vegetable del- 
icately cooked ; for breakfast ought to be next 
to the heartiest meal of the day. It is far the 
best way to take coffee and bread on rising, 
and eat the meal later when one has worked 
into an appetite for it. Those who find it im- 
possible to alter their habits enough for this 
visually have duties which ought to call them 
up long enough before to be quite hungry by 
seven or eight o'clock, the usual hours in this 
country for breakfast. 

Take away that thin slip of toast; it makes 
one turn invalid to see it. What do you call 
this gray, broad-celled, pallid stuff? Bread 
good yeast bread? If there is any thing in- 
tolerable, it is what the makers of it commonly 
call good home-made bread. It is mealy, or 
bitter, or gray and coarse-grained, sad-looking, 
with white crust, as if the owners were too 
poor to afford fire to bake it thoroughly. Give 
me poor bread, and I can eat it in a spirit of 



THE RICHEST BREAD. 101 

resignation ; but this domestic hypocrisy of 
good bread libels the wheat that made it, and 
arraigns the taste of those who eat it. Were 
it ever so good, there is something better yet 
the crisp, unbolted cake that lingers with nutty 
richness on the palate, once tasting of which 
weans one from the impoverished gentility 
of white bread forever. It is not urged on 
the score of being wholesome. The phrase has 
been so much abused that the cry of "health- 
ful food " invariably suggests something which 
doesn't taste good. But the strength and 
richness and coloring of wheat-cake recom- 
mend it to any breakfast fancier. There is 
no use aiming at fine-grained complexions 
without the use of coarse bread at every meal, 
A slice of Graham bread at breakfast will 
not counteract the evil tendencies of incorrect 
diet the rest of the day. When you get your 
coarse bread, two or three slices will not be 
too much at a meal. Such ought to be the 
breakfast of a young lady who wishes to have 
roundness of contour, unfailing spirits, and self- 



102 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPERS. 

command, with ready strength for walking, 
working, or study. Brain- work takes food as 
much as bodily labor. Between Mrs. OTla- 
herty in the laundry and the faithful lady editor 
of a newspaper, it is probable that the former 
has the easiest time of it, and uses less strength. 
The women worth any thing are built and 
sustained by hearty feeding. It is so that sing- 
ers and dancers eat, and lecturers and authors 
Grisi and Jenny Lind, Mrs. Kemble and 
Ristori, Mrs. Edwards, the novelist, and with 
her nearly every writer of note at this day. 
They are well-nourished women, whose appe- 
tites would embarrass the candy-loving sylphs 
whose usefulness amounts to nothing more 
than that of cheap porcelain. Women who 
exercise little, of course eat little ; in the end 
they can do nothing, because they are not 
sufficiently fed. There is no grossness in eat- 
ing largely if one work well enough to con- 
sume the strength afforded. The best engines 
are best fed. The grossness lies in eating and 
being idle. A woman who limits her exer- 



WOMEN OF THE COAST. 103 

tions to a walk around the squares daily may 
confine herself to a slice of toast and a strip of 
meat. She will grow thin and watery-look- 
ing, nervous and " high-strung," to pay for it. 
To know what charm there is in womanhood, 
go among the girls brought up in villages 
along the coast. The well-poised shoulders 
that have a will of their own, the round arms 
and necks, the profusion of hair, the strength 
and nerve combined in their movements, give 
one the idea of walking statuary. The poor 
drooping figures, the stiff shoulders we com- 
plain of, come from one cause lack of nutri- 
tion. Their muscles are not strong enough to 
hold them erect, and their nerves are not fed 
enough to stimulate the weak muscles to ac- 
tivity. How many times must it be said over? 
Want of sunshine and nourishing food gives 
the coarse, uninteresting look to most Ameri- 
can women. 

If Christiana would invoke mechanical aid 
to bring down her high shoulders and put flex- 
ibility into her chest muscles, after thirty years 



104 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

of abuse, it is easily done. Walking with a 
pail of water in each hand is rather dull work 
unless there is a call for domestic help. A 
homely but very effectual way of educating 
the muscles is to wear weights fastened to the 
shoulders. A shawl-strap answers every pur- 
pose, buckled on the shoulders with the handle 
between them on the back, and fastening a 
flat-iron of five or six pounds' weight to the 
straps which hang under the arms. An extra 
buckle may be sewed half-way down each 
strap, to fasten the iron on the end by a second 
loop. The weights may be worn while read- 
ing or writing for hours, and will be found 
rather agreeable to balance the stooping pro- 
pensity by throwing the stress on fresh mus- 
cles. With or without it, nine tenths of women 
from eighteen years old upward will need an- 
other simple support to relieve the muscles of 
the trunk below the waist. It matters little 
what causes this feebleness, whether too hard 
work, the weight of skirts, or degeneration of 
the muscular fibre from want of exercise and 



LINEN GIRDLES. 105 

lack of fresh air. Its relief is imperative to 
preserve bloom and life of any kind worth 
calling life. If any girl or woman can not 
dalice, run up stairs, take long walks, or stand 
about the house-work, no matter how slight 
the fatigue, support must be provided. Wom- 
en wear corsets, and say they can not exist 
without them, when the demand for aid of 
the relaxed muscles of the hips and back, 
though far more imperative, is neglected. The 
means are very simple : a bandage of linen 
toweling, soft and cool, buckled, tied, or pin- 
ned, as tight as will be comfortable, and so 
arranged as to relieve every muscle that feels 
fatigue. This is worth all the manufactured 
appliances in the market, and its prompt use 
averts a hundred distressing consequences. At 
the first approach of debility these girdles 
should be worn, as they have been from an- 
cient times among Greek and Jewish women. 
It is not sure that their office of prevention is 
not more essential than that of cure. Tight 
corsets are an abomination, for they interfere 



106 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

with flexibility, and so with that constant ex- 
ercise of the trunk muscles which alone can 
keep them in tone keep them from degenera- 
tion and atrophy. As to the muscles of the 
back and abdomen affected by the girdle, a 
degree of support just sufficient to encour- 
age them to their work, and prevent their 
giving it up in fatigue and despair, will exer- 
cise and strengthen them. A bandage tighter 
than is needed for this will do harm, not 
only by keeping the muscles idle, and so 
weakening them, but by compressing the ab- 
dominal viscera, and thus producing numer- 
ous evils. 

There is a game children play called "wring 
the towel," in which two clasp hands and whirl 
their arms over their heads without losing 
hold, that every woman ought to practice to 
keep her muscles flexible. Hardly any exer- 
cise could be devised which would give play 
to so many muscles at once. A woman ought 
to be as lithe from head to heel as a willow 
wand, not for the sake of beauty only, but 



BEAUTY THE REWARD OF HEALTH. 107 

for the varied duties and functions she must 
perform. 

It would be an artistic feat to take Chris- 
tiana through a course of baths, diet, suri-su> 
tings, and open-air walks, to show her to her- 
self. The oleander glow on firm cheeks, the 
eye of light, the tread of Diana, the buoyancy 
of body that fosters buoyancy of mind and 
spirits, would please her with herself. 

How dexterously Nature inserts the reward 
of beauty before the self-denials needed to 
gain health! A thoroughly healthy woman 
never is unbeautif nl. She is full of life, and 
vivacity shines in her face and manner, while 
her magnetism attracts every creature who 
comes within its influence. 



108 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPEES. 



CHAPTEE 5. 

The Bonniest Kate in Christendom. A Word to Mothers 
and Aunts. Different Vanities. The Sorrows of Ugly 
Women. Recipes of an Ancient Beauty. Sand Wash. 
Color for the Nails. Embrocation for the Hands. 
Soap to Bleach the Arms. Freckle Lotions. Artistic 
Enthusiasm at the Toilet. 

WAS the last chapter too much of a sermon 
on Christiana's breakfast? You think so, 
Kate, who are longing -to learn some art that 
may make you the bonniest Kate in Christen- 
dom. You say your hands are rough and un- 
sightly, your hair grows where you do not 
want it, and is none too thick where it ought 
to be. Your eyebrows are" bushy a most un~ 
feminine trait, that makes you look fierce as a 
lamb with mustaches. You don't seern lovely 
to yourself, and this consciousness makes you 
stiff and shy in your manner. . Somebody is 
to blame for this state of things. Either your 



LOST DOWER. 109 

mother, or your aunt, or the lady principal of 
the school where you studied, ought to have 
taken you in hand before you were fourteen, 
and showed you the remedies for these defects 
that were to affect your spirits and comfort in 
after-life. A girl should be taught to take 
care of her skin and hair just as she is to hold 
her dress out of the dust, and not to crumple 
her sash when she sits down. One thing will 
not make her vain more than another. There 
are many vanities to be found in women's 
character. One is vain of knowing three 
languages, one of her Sunday-school devotion, 
another of her pattern temper, and one of her 
pretty face. Of all these errors, the last is 
most endurable. Every attraction filched from 
a girl by neglect or design is so much stolen 
from her dowry that never can be replaced. 

Victor Hugo says that he who would know 
suffering should learn the sorrows of women. 
Let him say of ugly women, and he will touch 
the depth of bitterness. What tears the plain 
ones shed on silent pillows, shrinking even 



110 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

from the pale, beautiful moonshine that con- 
trasts so fatally with their homeliness. They 
would give years of life to win one of beauty. 
This regret is natural, irresistible, and not to 
be forbidden. Better let the grief have its 
way till the busy period of life takes a wom- 
an's thoughts off herself, and she forgets to 
care whether she is beautiful or not. Dam 
up the sluices of any sorrow, and it deepens 
and grows wider. Is this treating a peculiarly 
feminine regret over-tenderly ? This is writ- 
ten in remembrance of a girl who thought her- 
self so homely that she absolutely prayed that 
she might die and go to be perfect in heaven. 
More than one girl makes such a wish this 
night before small mirrors in cottage or man- 
sion chambers, with no eye but her own to 
scan her hopeless features. Why doesn't some 
one open a school of fine arts, literally des 
beaux-arts^ and make a greater success than 
Worth, by improving wearers instead of cos- 
tumes ? 

Till that time comes, let us make the best of 



DELICATE HANDS. Ill 

present resources, and consider these recipes, 
unearthed from an ancient book-shelf belong- 
ing to a maiden lady who was once, if tradi- 
tion may be credited, a beauty of no mean or- 
der. There is one thing to console us, Kate : 
you and I will never have to cry for our lost 
beauty. Your hands are to be pitied, for soft, 
sensitive lingers are what a woman can least 
afford to lose. They are needed to nurse sick 
folks, and do quick sewing, and handle chil- 
dren with. So we are glad to learn something 
of this kind. 

To soften the hands, fill a wash-basin half 
full of fine white sand and soap-suds as hot as 
can be borne. Wash the hands in this five 
minutes at a time, brushing and rubbing them 
in the sand. The best is fiint sand, or the 
white powdered quartz sold for filters. It may 
be used repeatedly by pouring the water away 
after each washing, and adding fresh to keep 
it from blowing about. Rinse in warm lather 
of fine soap, and after drying rub them in 
dry bran or corn meal. Dust them, and finish 



112 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPKKS. 

witli rubbing cold cream well into the skin. 
This effectually removes the roughness caused 
by house-work, and should be used every day, 
first removing ink or vegetable stains with 
acid. 

Always rub the spot with cold cream or oil 
after using acid on the fingers. The cream 
supplies the place of the natural oil of the 
skin, which the acid removes with the stain. 

To give a fine color to the nails, the hands 
and fingers must be \vell lathered and washed 
with scented soap ; then the nails must be 
rubbed with equal parts of cinnabar and em- 
ery, followed by oil of bitter almonds. To 
take white specks from the nails, melt equal 
parts of pitch and turpentine in a small cup ; 
add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur. Rub 
this on the nails, and the specks will soon dis- 
appear. Pitch and myrrh melted together 
may be used with the same results. 

An embrocation for whitening and soften 
ing the hands and arms, which dates far back, 
possibly to King James's times, is made from 



POWERFUL APPLICATIONS. 113 

myrrh, one ounce ; honey, four ounces ; yel- 
low wax, two ounces ; rose-water, six ounces. 
Mix the whole in one w^ell-blended mass for 
use, melting the wax, rose-water, and honey 
together in a dish over boiling water, and add- 
ing the myrrh while hot. Rub this thickly 
over the skin before going to bed. It is good 
for chapped surfaces, and would make an ex- 
cellent mask for the face. 

To improve the skin of the hands and arms, 
the following old English recipe is given, the 
principle of which is now revived in different 
cosmetic combinations. Take two ounces of 
fine hard soap old Windsor or almond soap 
and dissolve it in two ounces of lemon juice. 
Add one ounce of the oil of bitter almonds, 
and as much oil of tartar. Mix the whole, and 
stir \vell till it is like soap, and use it to wash 
the hands. This contains the most powerful 
agents which can safely be applied to the skin, 
and it should not be used on scratches or chap- 
ped hands. For the latter a delicate ointment 
is made from three ounces of oil of sweet al 



114: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

rnonds, an ounce of spermaceti, and half an 
ounce of rice flour. Melt these over a slow 
lire, keep stirring till cold, and add a few drops 
of rose-oil. This makes a good color for the 
lips by mixing a little alkanet powder with it, 
and may be used to tinge the finger-tips. It 
is at least harmless. 

Oil of almonds, spermaceti, white wax, and 
white sugar-candy, in equal parts, melted to- 
gether, form a good white salve for the lips 
and cheeks in cold weather. A fine cold cream, 
much pleasanter to use than the mixtures of 
lard and tallow commonly sold under that 
name, is thus made : 

Melt together two ounces of oil of almonds 
and one drachm each of white wax and sperm- 
aceti ; while warm add two ounces of rose-wa- 
ter, and orange-flower water half an ounce. 
Nothing better than this will be found in the 
range of toilet salves. 

A wash " for removing tan, freckles, blotch- 
es, and pimples," as the high-sounding preface 
' assures us, is made from two gallons of strong 



FRECKLE LOTION. 115 

soap-suds, to which are added one pint of al- 
cohol and a quarter of a pound of rosemary. 
Apply with a linen rag. This is better when 
kept in a close jar overnight. 

Freckle lotion, for the cure of freckles, tan, 
or sunburned face and hands something 
which I would prefer to the rosemary wash be- 
fore given, is thus made : Take half a pound 
of clear ox gall, half a drachm each of cam- 
phor and burned alum, one drachm of borax, 
two ounces of rock-salt, and the same of rock- 
candy. This should be mixed and shaken w r ell 
several times a day for three weeks, until the 
gall becomes transparent ; then strain it very 
carefully through filtering-paper, which may be 
had of the druggists. Apply to the face dur- 
ing the day, and wash it off at night. 

Now, Kate, do you see your way clear to the 
use and benefit of these mixtures? All these 
articles are to be found at any large druggist's, 
or, if not, he will tell you where to find them. 
The rosemary and honey may be found in that 
still fragrant store-room of your aunt's, in the 



116 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

country, unless she lias taken to writing very 
poor serial articles, and let the herb garden and 
the bees run out. To save trouble, take the 
recipes and have them made up at once by the 
druggist, who understands such things; but it 
is pleasant to dabble in washes and lotions 
one's self, like the Vicar of Wakeh'eld's young 
ladies. Then have you patience to persevere 
in their use ? For making one's self beautiful 
is a work of time and perseverance as much 
as being an artist, or a student, or a Christian. 
I wish I were with you, and could keep you 
up to your preparations, brush your eyebrows, 
trim your eyelashes, and do the dozen different 
offices of sympathy and \yomanly kindness. I 
should feel that I was the artist putting the 
touches on something more valuable than any 
statue ever moulded. Can you feel so your- 
self ? For if you can once get hold of that 
artistic impulse, you have the secret of all these 
toilet interferences. 



WITCIICEAFT FROM THE WOODS. 117 



CHAPTER XL 

A. Dark Potion. Olive-oil and Tar for the Face. Olive- 
tar for Inhalation. Carbolic Lotion for Pimples. Cure 
for Musquito Bites. Pale Blondes. A French Marquise. 
-Deepening Colors by Sunlight. Seductive Cosmetics. 
Nose-machine. Finger Thimbles. 

NEITHER distilled waters perfumed like May, 
nor embrocation smoother than velvet, are this 
time to be offered you. The compound in its 
ugliness is more like a witch's potion, and the 
odor is generally liked by those only who are 
used to it. But its merits are equal to its ug- 
liness nay, so firmly am I persuaded of its ef- 
fectiveness that before sundown I doubt not 
its virtues will be in active test within this 
household. Sea winds will roughen the face, 
and miscellaneous food deteriorate the soft- 
est skins. There are wrinkles, too, showing 
their first faint daring on the brow before 



118 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the glass wrinkles which had no busi- 
ness there for ten years to come, at any 
rate. u What hand shall soothe" their trace 
away ? 

It is a hunter's prescription that comes 
in use. You will hear of it along the Sara- 
nac, or lip in the Franconia region, where the 
pines and spruces yield fresh resins for its 
making. It is popular there for its efficacy 
in keeping the black-flies and musquitoes away ; 
yet even hunters bear witness to its excellence 
in leaving the skin fair and innocent. Thus 
runs the formula, simple enough, in all con- 
science, yet how few will have the boldness to 
try it : Mix one spoonful of the best tar in a 
pint of pure olive or almond oil, by heating the 
two together in a tin cup set in boiling water. 
Stir till completely mixed and smooth, putting 
in more oil if the compound is too thick to 
run easily. Rub this on the face when going 
to bed, and lay patches of soft old cloth on 
the cheeks and forehead to keep the tar from 
rubbing off. The bed linen must be protected 



A SYLVAN KECIPE. 119 

by old sheets folded and thrown over the pil- 
lows. The odor, when mixed with oil, is not 
strong enough to be unpleasant some people 
fancy its suggestion of aromatic pine breath 
-and the black, unpleasant mask washes off 
easily with warm water and soap. The skin 
comes out, after several applications, soft, moist, 
and tinted like a baby's. Certainly this wood 
ointment is preferable to the household rem- 
edy for coarse skins of wetting in buttermilk. 
Further, it effaces incipient wrinkles by soften- 
ing and refining the skin. The French have 
long used turpentine to efface the marks of 
age, but the olive - tar is pleasanter. A pint 
of best olive-oil costs about forty cents at the 
grocer's; for the tar apply to the druggist, 
who keeps it on hand for inhaling. A spoon- 
ful of the mixture put in the water vase of a 
stove gives a faint pine odor to the air of a 
room, which is very soothing to weak lungs. 
Physicians often recommend it. 

What is to be done witli the malignant lit- 
tle red pimples that crop out aiuioyingly at 



120 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the close of warm weather ? The cause is very 
plain. When cool days check the perspira- 
tion, the system must send out matter by some 
other outlet before it can adjust itself to the 
new state of things. Nothing is better for the 

O o 

irritable face than bathing with a dilution of 
carbolic acid one teaspoonful of the com- 
mon acid to a pint of rose-water. The acid, 
as usually sold in solution, is about one half 
the strength of really pure acid, which is very 
hard to find. The recipe given above was 
furnished by a regular physician, and was 
used on a baby, to soothe eruptions caused by 
heat, with the happiest results. Care must be 
taken not to let the wash get into the eyes, as 
it certainly will smart, though it may not be 
strong enough to do further harm. Xo more 
purifying, healing lotion is known to medical 
skill, and its work is speedy. Poor baby was 
not beautiful with his face of unaccustomed 
spots and blotches, when the laving with the 
fluid began at night, but next morning they 
were hardly visible. I commend this again to 



121 

mothers as a specific against those irritations 
with which children suffer. For soothing rrms- 
quito bites alone it is worth all the camphor, 
soda washes, and hartshorn that ever were 
tried. 

There is a w r ord of comfort to-day for those 
most hopeless cases of unloveliness, tow-color- 
ed blondes. Light hair of the faintest shade, 
without a tinge of gold or auburn, is now fan- 
cied abroad. Chignons of pale hair, dressed 
in abundant frizzes, command nearly as high 
a price as those pure blondes dorees which 
have been worth so many times their weight 
in gold. Ladies of fashion in France dye their 
hair, or rather bleach it, to this colorless state ; 
and the effect is very piquant with dark eyes 
and complexion. At the fetes in Paris recent- 
ly a marchioness of daring taste attracted gen- 
eral admiration by her pale tresses, relieved by 
profuse black velvet trimmings. Indeed, the 
only wear for tres blondes is black, even if it 
is only black alpaca, with transparent ruches at 
the neck and wrists. Let such not fear to ex- 



122 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

pose themselves to the fiercest sun to gain a 
shade or two of color in the face. If the fine- 
grained skin which accompanies such hair take 
on a pale, even brown, so much the better for 
artistic effect. Dark eyes will give brilliancy to 
the dullest face ; and dark they must be, if the 
harmless crayon can make them so by skillful 
shading about the light lashes. If ever art is 
a boon, it is when called in to change the sick- 
ly whiteness of too blonde brows and lashes. 
We can hardly expect that girls will carry 
their zeal for coloring so far as to feed for 
months on the meal from sorghum seed, which 
has the powerful effect of deepening the tint 
of the entire flesh a phenomenon as true as 
strange ; but we must hope that they will live 
and work in the rays of that great beautifier, 
the sun, which brings out and perfects all un- 
developed tones in Nature's painting. Pale 
eyes darken in exercise out-of-doors, and pasty 
skins grow prismatic like mother-of-pearl, in 
that wonderful way which fascinated Monsieur 
Taine when he beheld the miraculous brow? 



NOSE-MACHINE. '123 

and shoulders of English ladies. The idea did 
not seem to suggest itself to the critical French- 
man, but it will to every woman, that these 
charms were not wholly due to Nature. It 
is bewildering to read the announcements of 
toilet preparations under seductive names 
rosaline, blanc de perle, rose-leaf powder, mag- 
nolia, velvetine, can romaine tfor, and the rest. 
Think of the potent chemistry w T hich waits 
outside our windows untried ! Among the list 
of "eyebrow pencils," "nail polishes," and lip 
salves, a foreign paper brings to notice one in- 
vention which might be of use a nose-ma- 
chine, which, we are told, so directs the soft 
cartilage that an ill-formed nose is quickly 
shaped to perfection. No surgeon will deny 
that this is possible to a great degree. That it 
would be a boon nobody can doubt, seeing 
how many unfortunates walk the world whose 
noses have every appearance of having been 
sat upon, or made acquainted with the nether 
millstone. Long thimbles reaching to the sec- 
ond joint for shaping fingers are a new device. 



124 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

though something of the kind was used by 
very particular beauties fifty years ago. The 
only thing women would not do to increase 
their comeliness is to put themselves on the 
rack, unless indeed it were to live healthily. 



RESULTS OF HIGH LIVING. 125 



CHAPTEE XI.. 

Removal of Superfluous Hair. Effects of High Living. 
Work of Typhoid Fever. Roman Tweezers. Lola Mon- 
tez's Recipes. Paste of Wood -ashes. Bleaching Arms 
with Chloride. Cautions about Depilatories. Public 
Baths. Improving Complexions by the Sulphur Vapor- 
bath. How Arabian Women Perfume Themselves. 
Profuse Hair, Sign of Nature's Bounty. 

A CORRESPONDENT wishes to know what will 
remove superfluous hair, adding that she is an- 
noyed with such a growth of it on her face 
that she is the remark of her friends. These 
unfortunate cases are the result of morbid con- 
stitution, freaks of nature which are to be com- 
bated as one would eradicate leprosy or scrof- 
ula. The extreme growth of hair where it 
should not be comes from gross living, or is 
inherited by young persons from those whose 
blood was made of too rich materials. Living 
for two or three generations on overlarded 



126 THE UGLY GIRL PAPERS. 

meats, plenty of pastry, salt meats, ham, and 
fish, with good old pickles from brine in 
short, what would be called high living among 
middle-class people is pretty sure to leave its 
marks on lip and brow. Sometimes typhoid 
fever steps in and arrests the degeneration by 
a painful and searching process, which, as it 
were, burns out the vile particles, and, if the 
patient's strength endure, leaves her almost 
with a new body. The red, scaly skin peels 
off, and leaves a soft, fresh cuticle, pink as a 
child's; the dry hair comes out, and a fine, 
often curling suit succeeds it, while moles and 
feminine mustaches disappear and leave, no 
sign. But this fortunate end is not secured 
to order, and there are preferable ways of re- 
newing the habit of body. 

For immediate removal of the afflicting shad- 
ows which mar a feminine face there are many 
methods. The Romans used tweezers, regu- 
larly as we do nail-brushes, to pull out stray 
hairs; and Lola Montez speaks of seeing vic- 
tims of a modern day sitting for hours before 



DEPILATORIES, OLD AND NEW. 127 

the mirror painfully pulling out the hairs on 
their faces. But this often makes the matter 
worse; for if the hairs are broken off, and riot 
pulled up by the roo's they are sure to grow 
coarser than before. Often one hair pulled 
out sends two or three to grow in its place. 
A paste of line wood-ashes left to dry on the 
skin is said to eat off hairs, and is probably as 
safe as any remedy. The authority on femi- 
nine matters quoted above recommends very 
highly a plaster which pulls the hairs out by 
the roots. Spread equal parts of galbanum 
and pitch plaster on a piece of thin leather, 
and apply to the place desired ; let it remain 
three minutes, and pull off suddenly, when it 
brings the hairs with it, and they are said not 
to grow again. * This will probably bring the 
tears into the eyes of any one who tries it. ; 
but the courage of damsels desiring a smooth 
face is not to be damped by such trifles as an 
instant's pain. If the plaster were left on 
more than three minutes, it would be apt to 
bring the skin with it in coming off. It is 



128 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

better to use daily a paste of ashes or caustic 
soda, left on as long as it can be borne, wash- 
ing with vinegar to take out the alkali, and 
rubbing on sweet-oil to soften the skin, which 
is left very hard by these applications. Ap- 
plied day after day, it would not fail to kill 
the hair in a month, when it would dry and 
rnb off. This may be used on the arms, which 
might be whitened and cleared of hair togeth- 
er by bathing them in a hot solution of chlo- 
ride of lime as strong as that used for bleaching 
cotton, say two table-spoonfuls to a quart of 
water. Bathe the arms daily in this, as hot as 
can be borne, for not over two minutes, wash- 
ing afterward in vinegar and water,, and rub- 
bing with almond or olive oil. This should be 
done in a warm room before an open window^ 
to avoid breathing the fumes of the chloride, 
which are both unpleasant and noxious. Strong 
soft-soap left to dry on the arms would in time 
eat away any hair. But the trouble is that 
these strong agents eat away the skin almost 
as soon as they do the hair, and nice care must 



VIRTUES OF THE VAPO1M3AT1I. 129 

be used to prevent dangerous results. If the 
blood should be in bad order, though not sus- 
pected by any one, least of all by the person 
interested, caustic of any sort might eat a hole 
in the flesh that would fester, and be a long 
time healing. I saw a frightful sore that a 
lady made on her neck, trying to remove a 
mole with lunar caustic, and should advise ev- 
ery one to be careful how they run such pain 
ful risks. It is not wise to endure pain hero- 
ically, thinking to have the matter over and 
done with at once. Better try the applications 
many times, leaving them to do their work 
gradually and surely. 

To lay the foundation of true beauty, the 
system should be purified within as well as 
without. Nothing is of so much value in this 
respect as the vapor-bath. In all our large 
cities public establishments exist for taking 
these baths, and their virtues are well appre- 
ciated by those who once try them. At the 
largest bathing -houses in New York ladies 
attend regularly for the sole object of im- 



130 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

proving their complexion. Perhaps the most 
successful form administered is the sulphur 
vapor-bath, which works wonders for neural- 
gia. It purifies and searches the blood, and I 
have seen a patient who had lost one of the 
loveliest complexions in the world, as ^he 
thought forever, come out of her bath day 
after day visibly whitened at each trial. For 
ladies past youth nothing restores such soft- 
ness and child-like freshness to the cheek or 
such suppleness to the figure. Of course these 
baths can only be taken at places for the pur- 
pose, where chemical means are not wanting. 
I only mention them to urge all ladies who 
have the chance of trying them not to fail of 
doing so, both for pleasure and benefit. 

The vapor-bath, pure and simple, has stood 
for some time among household remedies for 
various ills, and is given by seating the un- 
dressed patient on a straw or flag chair over a 
saucer in which is a little lighted alcohol, and 
wrapping chair, patient, and all in large blank- 
ets. After a few minutes the perspiration 



PERFUMING WITH MYRRH. 131 

streams as if he were in a caldron of steam ? 
and may be kept np any length of time. Fif- 
teen minutes are enough. A tepid bath should 
follow, if one is not chilled by it, and after 
that either a good sleep or exercise enough 
to keep one in a glow. Impurities are dis- 
charged from the system in this way which 
else might occasion fever. The hair, skin, 
and nails are insensibly renewed and refined 
by it. There is not the least danger of taking 
cold if the precautions are taken of rubbing 
dry, dressing quickly and warmly, and keep- 
ing the blood at its proper heat by work or 
fire in short, by doing just those things 
which ought to be done should one never go 
near a vapor-bath. 

Arabian women have a similar method of 
perfuming their bodies by sitting over coals 
on which are cast handf uls of myrrh and spices. 
The heat opens the pores, which receive the 
fumes, till the skin is impregnated with the 
odor, and the women come out smelling like a 
censer of incense. Twice a week is often 



132 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

enough for the vapor-bath; as for the fiimi* 
gation, some creature doubtless will be wild 
enough to try the experiment once, which wil) 
be sufficient for a lifetime. If she do, she will 
be very glad to know that ammonia bathing 
will destroy most traces of her adventurous 
caprice. 

A profusion of hair, however, is a sign of 
nature's liberality, and this growth is found in 
connection with a strength and generosity of 
constitution that is capable of the best things 
when duly refined. South Americans, with 
their stipple bodies overflowing with vitality, 
have splendid tresses, and so have the Span- 
iards and Italians. Such people are quick and 
lasting in the dance, own deep tuneful voices, 
move with vigor and ease, and have a lux- 
uriance of blood and spirits, which is too 
precious to restrain or lose. Fasting, denial 
of pleasant food and plenty of it, till one is 
worn to an anchorite, may do for religious 
penance, but does not reach physical ends so 
well as moderate and satisfying indulgence, 



WHAT TO EAT. 133 

If any poor girl think, from reading this pa- 
per, that she ought to starve and waste herself 
by sweating because she has a pair of mus- 
taches and a coat of hair on her arms, she is 
vastly mistaken. If she want to know what 
she may eat, let her study Professor Blot's 
cookery-book. Whatever is there she may eat, 
as it is there, assured that all the delightful 
French seasoning will not do her blood half 
the injury of a season's course of pies made 
after good Yankee fashion the crust half 
lard and half old butter, the filling strong 
with spice or drenched with essence, as the 
case may be. 



134 THE UGLY-CIKI, PAPERS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Madame Celnart's Works of the Toilet. Literature of 
Beauty. Cares of the Toilet. Arts of Coiffure and 
Lacing. How to Hold a Needle Gracefully. Iris Powdet 
for Tresses. Arts of Italian Women. Depilatory used 
in Harems. Spirit of Pyretic. Herbs used by Greek 
Women. Mexican Pomade. Dusky Perfumed Marbles. 
Lost Perfumes. Sultanas' Lotion. Brilliant Paste for 
Neck and Arms. Baking Enamel. 

IF ever a woman deserved a seat in the 
French Academy for the value of her literary 
labors to her kind, it was Madame Celnart. 

The works of this lively author on man- 
ners, dress, cosmetics, and kindred topics no 
less interesting to her sex, are found in eight 
small octavos in their native French. The 
lady was an industrious and brilliant writer 
on themes of the toilet, the household, and 
deportment, on which Mrs. Farrar, author of 
The Young Lady's Friend, of our mothers' 



THE "EVANGELS OF COQUETRY." 13o 

time, and Mrs. Beeton, the editor of The En* 
glishwomarfs Magazine, in our day, have suc- 
ceeded her with much adornment but hardlj 
equal scope. Madame Celnart talks one can 
hardly imagine her holding a pen like a Pa 
risian, with empressement, with drollery, pre~ 
cision, and inimitable sprightliness. Her lect- 
ures sound like those of a gentle old' beauty, 
secure in the charm of her finished manner 
against the loss of her earlier fascinations, tell- 
ing the secrets of her age to a younger gen- 
eration, with half a smile at their readiness to 
seize these arts, and seriously pointing out the 
most graceful or the most modest way of do- 
ing things, with the concern of one who is con- 
scious that grace and prudence do not come 
to all her sex by nature. Imagine the arch 
gentleness with which she opens her work on 
the toilet in such easy, sparkling guise as this: 
" Je viens defeuilleter les arts de plaire, les 
lir/res de beaute, et autres evangiles des courti- 
sane" which may be freely translated, " I come 
to speak of the arts of pleasing, the literature 



136 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

of beauty, and other evangels of coquetry." 
She has a well-bred curl of disdain for " une 
allure bourgeoise mesquine;" but with the rev- 
erence of a true Frenchwoman, whose creed is 
her mirror, she pronounces her work " consacre 
a la toilette, et la conversation de la beaute" 
These duties she divides with serious precision 
into the " soins de la toilette" which include 
cosmetic arts, and " Part de se coiffer, lacer, et 
chausser" It was indeed an art, in the time 
of hundred-boned corsets without clasps, to 
lace one's self, and in the days of classic san- 
dals to put on one's shoes. She is as exact in 
all her details as a school-mistress, though one 
fancies a covert smile on her wise face as she 
rallies the young demoiselles who dreaded the 
bath because it was so cold ? Oh no ; but 
because their modesty could not endure the 
baring of their person even to themselves. 
Such, she gravely advises, may save their "pu- 
deur" by bathing in a peignoir. One inevi- 
tably recalls Lola Montez's dedication of her 
famous Book of Beauty ', " To all men and 



NEWBUKYPORT GENTLEWOMEN. 137 

women who arc not afraid of themselves," on 
encountering these French demoiselles with 
their conventual susceptibility. 

The graceful preceptress goes on with di- 
rections for sitting, for holding one's needle, 
for dancing, and holding one's petticoats out 
of the mud. Nobody will allow that these 
hints are superfluous who notices the varied 
awkwardness which women fall into who are 
habitually thoughtless on these points. Some 
of these nice customs may have been carried 
to our shores, possibly with Rochambeau's 
French ladies at Newport or Salem. I re- 
member hearing one of the fine Newburyport 
ladies, who answer to the description of gen- 
tlewomen still, maintain earnestly that it was 
most graceful to "sew with a long point" 
that is, to push the needle nearly its whole 
length through at each stitch, instead of pull- 
ing it out, so to speak, by the nose. And she 
was right, as you can verify by the next sew- 
ing, you take up. 

In the time of Madame Celnart, fine ladies 



138 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

used to powder their hair with the dust of 
Florentine iris, which gave their love-breath- 
ing tresses the violet odor of spring. A pleas- 
ant idea; but their iris, our orris root, must 
have been a trifle fresher than comes to this 
country. It makes us sure that the beauties 
of Titian's and Guido's times were real wom- 
en, to know that they steeped their tresses in 
bleaching liquids and dyes, and spread their 
locks in the sun for hours to gain the coveted 
golden tinge; and the hair of the Bella 
Donna herself might have caught part of its 
enchantment from the sprinkling of violet 
powder that lent its waves a soul. Those im- 
mortal beauties would have canonized Lubin 
had he been alive w r ith his pomades and per- 
fumes in their time. Celnart was a coura- 
geous advocate of cosmetics, or else she was 
wise enough to put the worst first, for one of 
her earliest recipes is this depilatory, which is 
not at all quoted by way of recommendation. 
It is the Oriental Rusma, a depilatory used 
in harems: 



"OKIENTAL EUSMA." 139 

Two ounces of quicklime, half an ounce of 
orpiment and red arsenic; boil in one pint of 
alkaline lye, and try with a feather to see 
when it is strong enough. Touch the parts 
to be rid of hair, and wash with cold water. 
When we say that orpiment and realgar are 
deadly poisons, and add Madame Celnart's re- 
mark that the mixture is of " line grande caus- 
ticite" often attacking the tissue of the skin, 
our readers will quite agree with her that it is 
only to be used with " la plus grande cir- 
conspeciion" or, still better, not at all. The 
Creine Parisienne depilatoire is harmless, and 
is given for what it is worth : One eighth of 
an ounce of rye starch, and the same of sul- 
phate of baryta (or heavy-spar), the juice of 
purslane, acacia, and milk-thistle, mixed with 
oil. 

The high-sounding Paste of Venus, devised 
by a Parisian cosmetic artist, who shared the 
mythologic fancy which prevailed years ago, 
was spread over the skin to soften and per- 
fume it. Esther herself might have used it, 
10 



140 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

for its conjugation of spices would delight an 
Oriental. It was made of fat, butter, honey, 
and aromatics the more the better; but as 
none of our belles wish to try the anointing 
bodily, I spare them the list, and give instead 
the Esprit de pyretre. The pyrethrum, or 
Spanish pellitory, is an herb highly valued by 
cosmetic artists, and appears in several recipes 
of the French : 

Powdered cinnamon, one drachm; corian- 
der, nineteen scruples ; vanilla, the same ; clove, 
eighteen grains; cochineal, mace, and saffron, 
the same ; simple spirit of pyrethrum, one li- 
tre (about seven eighths of a quart). Let these 
ingredients digest for fifteen days, and add 
orange-flower water, half an ounce; oil of an- 
ise, eighteen drops; citron, ditto; oils of lav- 
ender and thyme, each nine drops ; ambergris, 
three grains. Mix the ambergris with the 
pyretre, and put the two liquids together. Fil- 
ter after two days. Use as a toilet water. 

No wonder French cosmetics are so high- 
ly valued, when their composition embraces 



SAFFRON AND ROSES. 141 

such a variety of pleasing ingredients. Thyme, 
anise, and saffron seem homely herbs for a 
woman's use, but they assisted at every toilet 
among the Greek women of old ; and Rhodora 
wove the crocus (meadow-saffron) with the 
rose, and fennel among her jasmines, without 
a thought such as these things give us of sick- 
teas and home-made dyes. Why should herbs 
of such excellent renown lose the poetry that 
belongs to them? Mingled in variety with 
ambergris and orange flowers, they give body 
to a perfume rich enough to have satisfied 
Cleopatra. 

If this recipe is complicated, what will be 
said to the next, compounded by South Amer- 
ican women, and fashionable in Paris not so 
very long after the time of Josephine, who 
may have patronized, or, indeed, introduced 
this souvenir of Creole coquetry. Madame 
Celn art says of it, " Only the Tartuffes of 
coquetry could blame the Mexican pomade," 
whose proportions indicate that the formula 
came straight from the perfumer's hands, and 



142 THE UGLY-GIRL PAPERS. 

is therefore correct. Any one who wishes fr 
try it can reduce the measure to suit herself : 

Extract of cocoa, sixty-four ounces; oil of 
noisette, thirty-two ounces ; oil of ben, thirty- 
two ounces; oil of vanilla, two ounces; white 
balsam of Peru, one drachm ; benzoin flowers, 
half a drachm; civet, ditto; neroli, one drachm; 
essence of rose, one drachm ; oil of clove flow- 
ers', one ounce; citron and bergamot waters, 
each half a pint. Steep the vanilla in the co- 
coa butter eight days in a hot place ; dissolve 
the balsam in half a glass of alcohol, with the 
benzoin and civet, and add the spirit of clove. 
Mix the essence of rose and neroli in the oils 
of ben and noisette, and beat the whole forci- 
bly together in a large marble or china bowl. 

Creole women spread this paste on their 
smooth skins, which the oil of cocoa softens 
and moistens, while the delightful changing 
odor is absorbed, till their forms are like liv- 
ing, dusky, but perfumed marbles. These rec- 
ipes are given -not so much for imitation, or 
to contribute to the lore of perfumers this side 



FRAGEANT WATEES. 143 

tne water, as curiosities of national arts and 
feminine vanity. Where in our country would 
we find the ingredients of the celebrated Eau 
de Stahl, known to the Parisian chemists forty 
years ago ? Its compound w r as as follows : 

Alcohol, nine litres ; rose-water, three litres; 
the root of Spanish pellitory, five ounces ; gal- 
lingale root, three ounces ; tormentil, three 
ounces ; balsam of Peru, three ounces ; cinna- 
mon, five drachms ; rue, one ounce ; ratania, 
eight ounces. Powder the whole, and put in 
alcohol ; shake w r ell, and leave to macerate six 
days. Pour off, and let it stand twenty-four 
hours to clear, after which add essential oil of 
mint, one and a half drachms; powdered coch- 
ineal, four drachms. Leave to infuse anew 
three days; filter through filtering-paper, and 
decant. Use for a tooth wash, for washing 
the face, or for baths. 

Peruvian powder was a standard dentifrice 
of the same date, It is made of white sugar, 
half a drachm ; cream of tartar, one drachm ; 
magnesia, ditto ; cinnamon, six grains ; mace, 



144: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

two grains ; sulphate of quinine, three grains ; 
carmine, five grains. Powder and mix care- 
fully, adding four drops of the oils of rose and 
mint. 

The following cosmetic, called the SerJcis du 
Serail, is said to be a favorite lotion used by 
the Sultanas, for whom it is imported from 
Achaia though this sounds more like one 
of those pleasant fictions which perfumers de- 
light to invent concerning their oils and po- 
mades than any thing we are obliged to be- 
lieve. This may be said in favor of the asser- 
tion it is such a mixture of starch and oils 
as no one but an odalisque could endure to 
use. It is made of sweet- almond paste, ten 
livres ; rye and potato starch, each six livres ; 
oil of jasmine, eight ounces ; the same of oil of 
orange flowers and of roses ; black balsam of 
Peru, six ounces ; essence of rose and of cin- 
namon, each sixty grains. Mix the powders 
and essences separately in earthen vessels, then 
add the powder to the liquid little by little, 
bruise well together, and strain through musliu, 



BRILLIANT ENAMEL. 145 

An elegant preparation for whitening the 
face and neck is made of terebinth of Mecca, 
three grains ; oil of sweet almonds, four ounces ; 
spermaceti, two drachms ; flour of zinc, one 
drachm ; white wax, two drachms ; rose-water, 
six drachms. Mix in a water-bath, and melt 
together. The harmless mineral white is fixed 
in the pomade, or what we would call cold 
cream, and is applied with the greatest ease 
and effect. It must be to some preparation 
of this subtle sort that the lustrous whiteness 
of certain much-admired fashionable complex- 
ions is due. It is a cheap enamel, without the 
supposed necessity of baking, which, by the 
way, is such a blunder that I wonder people 
of sense persist in speaking of it as if it could 
be a fact 



146 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Last of the Rose. Weighing in the Balances. To 
Love and to be Loved. The Enigma of Love. Its Power 
over the Lot of Men. Inspiration in the Looks. The 
Land of Spring. The Duchess of Devonshire. Women 
at and after Thirty. Training of Emotion. Warming 
the Voice. Crow's-feet at the Opera. Bohemian Arsenic 
Waters. Recipe from Madame Vestris. Milk of Roses. 
Sweet-oils. Opera-dancers' Prescription for Restoring 
Suppleness. 

FOR any woman, maid or matron, past youth, 
who hears the leaves begin to drop, and sees 
the roses curl in the warm summer of her life, 
this chapter is written. It is well that with 
the decay of bloom and outward charm there 
should be a lessening of feeling, an amiable 
indifference to the homage that youth covets 
eagerly. The woman of who dares fill in 
the age? the woman who finds the fai.nt 
lines on her cheek and the pallor creeping to 



AN OLD SONG. 147 

'her lip should have learned and tasted many 
tilings in her life so many that she can ap- 
praise the value of all, and resign them con- 
tentedly, with a little sigh, not for what they 
were, but for w r hat they w r ere not. 

She should have loved, and, if possible, have 
won love in return, though that is less matter. 
The wisdom, the blessedness, come through 
loving, not through being loved. 

It is well if she can accept the complement 
of her affection, and find out of what mutable 
elements it is made : its fervor and forgetful- 
ness ; its devotion, /)ften eclipsed and as often 
surprising with its fresh strength weak where 
we trust it most, and standing proof where we 
surely expect it to fail. 

Suclv is the love of man. It is a riddle, 
whose learning has cost gray hairs on tender 
temples, the roses from many cheeks. 

It is the tradition that love makes or mars 
a woman's life ; but I have yet to learn that it 
does not exert an equal though silent power 
over the lot of men. Be that as it may, & 



148 THE USLY-GIRL PAPERS. 

woman in love is far more beautiful than one 
out of it. And this is true if the love last to 
threescore. 

Let women, if they would remain charming, 
by all means keep their hold on love, their 
faith in romance. The power of feeling gives 
vitality arid interest to faces long after their 
first flush has passed. Speaking as matter of 
fact, this is the case, for emotion has a livelier 
power than the sun has over the blood, and 
the miracle of love in making a plain girl 
pretty is explained by the stimulating effects 
of happiness on the circulation. If you would 
preserve inspiration in your looks, beware how 
you repress emotion. Cultivate, not the signs 
of it, but emotion itself, for the two things are 
very distinct. Suffer yourself to be touched 
and swayed by noble music and passion. To 
do this, place yourself often under the best in- 
fluences within reach. There may be pathos 
enough in the rendering of a poor little girl's 
song at the piano to stir tenderly chords of 
feeling that were growing dull for want of 



ANTIQUE BELLES. 149 

use. The rose of morning, the perfume of 
spring, have rapt many a middle-aged woman 
away to divine regions of fancy, from which 
she came back with their dewy freshness and 
smell lingering about her. Youth has its day- 
long reveries while its hands are at work. We 
older ones need to reserve with jealous care 
our hours of solitude, in which the springs fill 
up. 

The faces of old beauties have no charm be- 
yond that of feeling. Look at the women 
who were reputed the belles of our large 
cities twenty years ago. They may be well 
preserved ; but in most cases they are mere 
masks in discolored wax. The pearly teeth, 
the small Grecian features, the soft, fine hair 
and regular eyes are left, but the brow has 
learned neither to weep nor smile, the lips are 
composed, and might be mute for all the ex- 
pression that replaces their lost crimson. One 
could adore the wasted beauty of the Duchess 
of Devonshire, " worn by the agitations of a 
brilliant and romantic life," for the sake of 



150 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

the fire and kindness that lit even its death- 
pillow ; and the Josephine of Malmaison, with 
eyes always eloquent of tears, wins more devo- 
tion than the empress at Saint Cloud, confessed 
the loveliest woman of France. Let no wom- 
an fall into the mistake of preserving her 
beauty by refraining from emotion, for all she 
can keep by such costly pains will be the coffin- 
like shapeliness of flowers preserved in sand. 

Laugh, weep, rejoice, or suffer as life pro- 
vides. Only feel something natural, worthy^ 
and vivid enough not to leave your face a 
blank. 

There is a time between twenty-five and 
thirty-five when the struggle of life, mean or 
lofty as it may be, oppresses women sorely. 
Fret and care write crossing script on their 
faces, which grow yellow and pinched till they 
despair of comeliness. This is when they are 
learning to live. Ten years or so make the 
lesson easy, and it is one of the thankfulest 
things in the world to see such faces going 
back to the blossom and sunny sweetness of 



151 

their spring. Many a woman is handsomer at 
thirty-Dine than she was at thirty. Nature re- 
sponds wonderfully to the reliefs afforded her. 
The only counsel is to let Nature go free. 
Do not think, because trial has bent spirit and 
frame together, that they should stay so a mo- 
ment after the heavy hand is off. If you feel 
like singing, sing, not humming low, but joy- 
ful and clear as the larks, that would carol 
just as gayly at ninety, if larks lived so long, 
as the first summer they left their nests. The 
worst of English and American systems of 
manners is the constant repression they de- 
mand. It impairs even the physical powers, 
so that in training a singer the first thing 
great artists do is to teach her to feel, in 
order, as they say, to " warm up " the voice 
and give it fullness. Women need to culti- 
vate pleasure arid amusement far more after 
they are thirty than before it, I mean roman- 
tic pleasures, such as come from exquisite col- 
ors and sceneries in nature or their homes, 
from poetry and the loveliest music. They 



152 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

are twice as impressible then as they are in 
youth, if they know how to get hold of the 
right notes. They leave themselves to fall out 
of tune, and forget to respond. 

Yet, as a woman does not love to carry her 
thinned tresses and crow's-feet into the glare 
of the opera, or to talk poetry when rheu- 
matism twinges her middle finger, the craft of 
the toilet comes in most gratefully. The 
freshness of the skin is prolonged by a simple 
secret, the tepid bath in which bran is stirred, 
followed by long friction, till the flesh fairly 
shines. This keeps the blood at the surface, 
and has its effect in warding off wrinkles. 
Bohemian countesses over thirty may go to 
arsenic springs, as they were wont to do, for 
the benefit of their complexions; but the home 
bath-room is more efficacious than even the 
minute doses of quicksilver with which the 
ladies of George the First's court used to 
poison themselves a primitive w T ay of get- 
ting at the virtues of bine-pill. 

The celebrated Madame Vestris slept with 



ANOINTING WITH PERFUMES. 153 

her face covered by a paste which gave firm- 
ness to a loose skin and prevented wrinkles. 
It was a recipe which the Spanish ladies are 
fond of using, which requires the whites of 
four eggs boiled in rose-water, to which is 
added half an ounce of alum, arid as much 
oil of sweet almonds, the whole beaten to a 
paste. 

A favorite cosmetic of the time of Charles 
II. was the milk of roses, said to give a fair 
and youtlif ul appearance to faded cheeks. It 
was made by boiling gum-benzoin in the spir- 
its of wine till it formed a rich tincture, fifteen 
drops of which in a glass of water made a fra- 
grant milk, in which the face and arms were 
bathed, leaving the lotion to dry on. It ob- 
literates wrinkles as far as any thing can be- 
sides enamel. 

To restore suppleness to the joints, the 
Oriental practice may be revived of anointing 
the body witli oil. The best sweet-oil or oil 
of almonds is used for this purpose, slightly 
perfumed with attar of roses or oil of violets. 



154: THE UGLY-GIKL PAPEKS. 

The joints of the knees, shoulders, and fingers 
are to be oiled daily, and the ointment well 
rubbed into the skin, till it leaves no gloss. 
The muscles of the back feel a sensible relief 
from this treatment, especially when strained 
with work or witli carrying children. The 
anointing should follow the bath, when the 
two are taken together. It is a pity this cus- 
tom has ever fallen into disuse among our 
people, who need it quite as much as the sen- 
suous Orientals. 

Opera -dancers in Europe use an ointment 
which is thus given by Lola Montez : The 
fat of deer or stag, eight ounces ; olive-oil, 
six ounces; virgin wax, three ounces; white 
brandy, half a pint ; musk, one grain ; rose- 
water, four ounces. The fat, oil, and wax are 
melted together, and the rose-water stirred into 
the brandy, after which all are beaten together. 
It is used to give suppleness to the limbs in 
dancing, and relieves the stiffness ensuing on 
violent exercise. Ambergris would suit mod- 
ern taste better than musk in preparing this. 



A CUKE FOE TOOTHACHE. 155 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Fearful Malady of which no one Dies. Esprit Odon- 
talyique. Gray Pastilles. Important to Smokers. 
Mouth Perfumes. Care of the Breath. Directions for 
Bathing. Perfumes for the Bath. Bazin's Pate. Qual- 
ity of Soaps. Bathing and Anointing the Feet. Nicety 
of Stockings. Delicate Shoe Linings. Feet of Pauline 
Bonaparte. 

AMONG the recipes, more or less valuable, 
which come to light in old collections, one for 
the toothache, by Boerhaave, is too useful to be 
lost. Even beauties have the toothache some- 
times, especially after going home from the 
Academy of Music on a snowy night with a 
tulle scarf folded about their heads, or after 
sitting with their backs to the window in a 
half-warmed parlor during a ceremonious call. 
Use before beauty, mademoiselles ; and with 
no more excuse is proffered the Esprit Odon- 
talgique, which should be kept in the dressing- 



150 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

room, ready for the slightest signs of that most 
terrible malady, from which nobody dies. 

Alcohol of thirty-three degrees, one ounce; 
camphor, four grains; opium in powder, twen- 
ty grains ; oil of cloves, eighty drops. The ef- 
ficacy of this lotion will be seen at a glance, 
and no other authority for its use is needed 
than that of the learned and excellent physi- 
cian who gave it its name. 

Very properly follow the gray pastilles for 
purifying the breath. They do so, not by dis- 
guising it, but by reaching the root of the dif- 
ficulty, arresting decay in the teeth, and neu- 
tralizing acidity of the stomach. The mixt- 
ure is very simple : Chlorate of lime, seven 
drachms ; vanilla sugar, three drachms ; gum- 
arabic, five drachms to be mixed with warm 
water to a stiff paste, rolled, and cut into loz- 
enges. 

Madame Celnart archly advises all good 
wives to let their spouses know that these loz- 
enges entirely remove the traces of tobacco in 
the breath. As a good wife will hardly inter- 



"EAU ANGELIQUE." 157 

fere with a favorite habit of her husband who 
is fond of smoking, the least any gentleman 
can do is to render his presence acceptable 
after the indulgence. 

Another pastille, preferable on some ac- 
counts to the above, but owing its value to the 
same principle, is made from chlorate of so- 
dium, twenty - four grains ; powdered sugar, 
one ounce ; guin-adraganth, twenty grains ; 
perfumer's essential oil, two drachms. Pow- 
der the chlorate in a glass mortar; put the 
powder in a cup, and pour in a little water; 
let it settle, and pour off. Repeat the process 
three times with fresh water, filtering what is 
poured off each time, and mix the gum and 
sugar with it, adding the perfume last. 

A gargle for the mouth which combines 
all the virtues of Eau Angelique, and every 
other wash of heavenly name, is made of the 
chlorate of lime in powder, three drachms; 
distilled water, two ounces. Reduce the chlo- 
rate with a glass pestle in a glass mortar, add 
a third of the water, stir, and pour off, as di- 



158 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

rected before, till all is added. To this add 
two ounces of alcohol, in \vhich is dissolved 
four drops of the volatile oil of roses and four 
drops of perfumer's essential oil. Half a tea- 
spoonful of the solution in a wine-glass of wa- 
ter is to be used at a time as a tooth- wash and 
gargle for the mouth and gums. 

With the best intentions as to physical neat- 
ness, many persons are unable to make the im- 
pression of their company wholly agreeable. 
They may remember with advantage that 
rinsing the mouth with this fluid six times a 
day is not too much pains in order to make 
themselves acceptable to others. There is no 
surer passport to esteem than an innocent, 
taintless person, which wins upon one before 
moral virtues have time to make their way. 
If you think this truth is repeated too often, 
study the impression made by the respectable 
people you meet for the next month. The re- 
sult will satisfy you that those who are as neat 
as white cats are as one to fifteen of the care- 
less, easily satisfied sort. 



DIRECTIONS FOR TOILET WATERS. 159 

Slight disorders of the system make them- 
selv,es known by the sickly odor of the perspi- 
ration, quite sensible to others, though the per- 
son most interested is the last to become con- 
scious of it. The least care, even in cold 
weather, for those who would make their phys- 
ical as sure as their moral purity, is to bathe 
with hot water and soap twice a week from 
head to foot. Carbolic toilet soap is the best 
for common use, as it heals and removes all 
roughness and "breakings out" not of the 
gravest sort. Ladies whose rough complex- 
ions were a continual mortification have found 
them entirely cleared by the use of this soap. 
The slight unpleasant odor of the acid present 
soon disappears after washing, and it may be 
overcome by using a few spoonfuls of perfume 
in the water. 

An excellent preparation for bathing is 
Bacheville's Eau des Odalisques. The French 
recommend it highly for frictions, lotions, and 
baths. It is made in quantity for free use aft- 
er this recipe: Two pints of alcohol, one of 



160 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

rose-water, half a drachm of Mexican cochineal, 
four ounces of soluble cream of tartar, ve 
drachms of liquid balsam of Peru, five drachms 
of dry balsam of the same ; vanilla, one drachm ; 
pellitory root, one and a half ounces; storax, 
one and a half ounces; galanga, one ounce; 
root of galanga, one and a half ounces; dried 
orange peel, two drachms ; cinnamon, essence 
of mint, root of Bohemian angelica, and dill 
seed, each one drachm. Infuse eight days, and 
filter. For lotions, add one spoonful of this to 
six of water. It is also useful for freshening 
the mouth, adding twenty-four drops of it to 
four teaspoonfuls of tepid water. For dis- 
eased gums, double the dose, and gargle with 
it several times a day. 

The Pate Axerasive of Bazin, the celebrated 
perfumer, has the distinction of being* highly 
commended by the French Royal Academy 
of Medicine. It is better for toilet use than 
soaps which contain so much alkali. Take 
powder of bitter almonds, eight ounces; oil 
of the same, twelve ounces; savon vert of 



DANGER OF USING POOR SOAPS. 161 

the perfumers, eight ounces ; spermaceti, four 
ounces ; soap powder, four ounces ; cinnabar, 
two drachms ; essence of rose, one drachm, 
Melt the soap and spermaceti with the oil in 
a water -bath, add the powder, and mix the 
whole in a marble mortar. It forms a kind 
of paste, which softens and whitens the skin 
better than any soap known. 

Make toilet waters and pastes of this kind in 
quantity,- as they improve with age. It costs 
about one fourth as much to prepare them 
as to buy the same quantity at the perfumer's, 
and one has the advantage of a finer article. 
Do not use cheap soap for the toilet. Such 
is almost always made of rancid or half -putrid 
fat, combined w^ith strong alkalies, which dry 
and crack the skin, sometimes causing danger- 
ous sores by the poisonous matter they in- 
troduce from vile grease. Never allow such 
soap to touch the flesh of an infant. To do 
so is little better than absolute cruel tj r . White 
soaps are the safest, as they are only made of 
purified fat. 



162 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

The feet should be washed every night and 
morning as regularly as the hands. It pre- 
serves their strength and elasticity, and helps 
to keep their shape. What person of refine- 
ment can take any pleasure in looking at her 
own feet presenting the common appearance 
of distortion by shoes too tight in the wrong 
place, and tiie dry, hardened skin of partial 
neglect ? One's foot is as proper an object 
of pride and complacency as a shapely hand. 
But where in a thousand would a sculptor find 
one that was a pleasure to contemplate, like 
that of the Princess Pauline Bonaparte, whose 
lovely foot was modeled in marble for the de- 
light of all the world who have seen it ? 

As nice care should be given to feet as to 
hands, beginning witli a bath of fifteen min- 
utes in hot soap and water, followed by scrap- 
ing with an ivory knife, and rubbing with a 
ball of sand-stone, which will be found most 
useful for a dozen toilet purposes. The nails 
may be left to take care of themselves, with 
constant bathing and well-fitting shoes, un- 



CARE OF THE FEET. 163 

less they have begun to grow into the flesh, 
when all to be done is to scrape a groove 
lengthwise in each corner of the nail. The 
whole foot should be anointed with purified 
olive-oil or oil of sweet almonds after such a 
bath. A pair of stockings should be drawn on 
at night to preserve the bedclothes from grease- 
spots. The oil will soak off the old skin, and 
wear away the scaly tissue about the nails, 
while it renders the soles as soft and pliant 
as those of a young child. 

A daily change of stockings is as desirable 
for those who walk out as a fresh handker- 
chief every morning but how many people 
consider it necessary? It may sound auda- 
cious to suggest that when laundry- work is an 
item, a lady would show her ingrain refine- 
ment by washing her own Balbriggan hose as 
truly as by stinting herself to two pair a week 
on account of washer-women's bills. As for 
the vulgarity of wearing colored stockings 
"because they show dirt less," it is to be re- 
pudiated, save in the case of children, who 



164 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

are quite capable of going through with a 
box of white stockings in a day, and looking 
none the cleaner for it at the end. Our boot- 
makers are in fault about the lining of shoes, 
which ought to be changeable when soiled. 
Soiled, indeed ! When are common shoes ever 
clean within ? Our manufacturers are the op- 
posite of the French, whose workmen wear 
fresh linen aprons, and wash their hands every 
hour, for fear of soiling the white kid linings 
at which they sew. The time will come when 
we will find it as shocking to our ideas to wear 
out a pair of boots without putting in new lin- 
ing as we think the habits of George the First's 
time, when maids of honor went without wash- 
ing their faces for a week, and people wore 
out '.heir linen without the aid of a laundress. 
Cleanliness means health in every case, and a 
plea must be offered for those neglected mem- 
bers, that only find favor in our eyes by mak- 
ing themselves as diminutive as possible. 



A HOME ALTAK-PIECE. 165 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

"The Leaves are Full of Joy." Nobility of the Body. 
Its Possibilities. Brain and Heart Dependent on it. 
Physical Culture Imperative in America. Our Contempt 
of Health. Easier to be Magnificent than Clean. Dis- 
tilled Water for Every Use. Substitute for Stills. Vapor 
and Sulphur Baths. Bran Baths. Oatmeal for the 
Hands. Frequency of Baths. Remedies for Hepatic 
Spots. 

How lusty and delicate the young leaves 
grow on their steins in their nook of sunshine! 
What could be lovelier in its way than the 
three geranium leaves starting from the mould 
in the window-box where the sun strikes across 
the "corner of the sill? They are so firmly 
poised, yet glancing; each full of green juice 
that the sun turns to jewel-light, with spots of 
darker tint where the feathered edges overlie 
a subtle piece of color wrought by sun and 
soil for no eye to see but by chance, yet ecstatic 



166 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

in its delight, as if meant for the centre trefoil 
of an altar window. So the sun does all his 
work. So leaves grow by myriads in the gar- 
den and the forest. So the forces of nature 
bring forth every thing perfect if left free to 
their impulses. 

There is something like the leaves in our 
frames, that would grow springy and strong, 
soft-colored and brilliant, upright and joyous, 
if it were suffered to. It appeals for sun- 
shine and gayety, for abundant food and ease, 
for copious watering, tendance, and freedom. 
Give it these, and the body, under present 
conditions, is as far beyond its common dull- 
ness and weakness as it is below the saints in 
light; for heavenly bodies can not be very dif- 
ferent from ours unless they cease to be bodies. 

The mortal frame is noble enough as it is. 
No harp ever vibrates like it with emotion 
and pleasure ; no star shines so fair or so wise 
as the face of man. God made it, and God 
loves it, which is the reason it wins so closely 
upon us, and is so dear. There is no wisdom 



HONORING THE FLESH. 167 

in despising the body or its sensations. It is 
crudity to uphold that the mental part of us 
should absorb all the rest. Brain and heart 
are dependent on the body, and it was meant, 
not for the slave as men seem never weary 
of preaching but for the interpreter and 
companion of both. 

Honor is due the body, and thanks for its 
pleasures, which should be enjoyed with in- 
telligence and leisure. They are no more 
low or debasing than mental pursuits may be 
when pursued to the exclusion of all others. 
The sensualist is no more intolerable in the 
order of nature than the pedant or pretender 
in literature, and does little more harm in the 
long-rim. The former ruins himself; the lat- 
ter, by a false philosophy, may lead thousands 
astray. Give the body its due its thirds witli 
the mind and the soul. Neither is the better 
for having more than its share. 

The need of physical culture grows more 
and more urgent in this country. Here most 
unlike races mix sullen and mercurial blood 



1G8 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

together in the most variable of climates. 
They interchange habits as well, though the 
only one peculiar to Americans as such is a 
tolerable contempt for the conditions of health 
a contempt inherited through half a dozen 
generations. The climate is not in fault, but 
the people are. It is much easier in this 
country to be magnificent than to be clean. 
At any hotel there is enough of useless up- 
holstery, as a matter of course, but a bath is 
an extra, often not to be had on any terms. 
This is the case even in the metropolis, where 
at least a better idea of civilization ought to 
prevail. For the rest, there is not much to be 
said for the intelligent culture of any family 
who have carpets before their bath-room is 
fitted up. 

When refinement has reached a step beyond 
faucets and water-pipes, each house w r ill have 
its distilling apparatus to provide the purest 
water for drinking and bathing. Xobody will 
any more think of drinking undistilled water 
than they do now of eating brown sugar when 



DISTILLATION MADE EASY. 169 

they can get white. Her Majesty the Queen 
of England uses nothing but distilled water 
for her toilet, and the luxury and softness of 
such a bath are so great that no one used to 
its indulgence will consent to forego it. A 
small still costs five dollars, and would pro- 
vide all the water that is needed for family 
use. It should be kept in action all the time, 
and fill a close reservoir for bathing, while that 
for cooking and drinking should be freshly 
distilled each day. A simple substitute for a 
still is a tea-kettle, witli a close cover and a 
gutta-percha or lead pipe fastened to the 
spout, leading through a pail of cold water 
into a jar for holding the distilled water. The 
steam from .the boiling water goes off through 
the tube, condenses under the cold water, 
and runs off pure into the receiver. Where 
houses are heated by steam, I am told, they 
may be amply provided with distilled water 
by adding a pipe to one of the tubular heat- 
ers, that will carry steam into a cooler, from 
which pure water may run day and night. 



170 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

Besides the distilled-water baths in a com* 
plete household, there should be facilities for 
the vapor bath at any time. This is invalua- 
ble in colds, rheumatism, congestions, and neu- 
ralgia. The readiest substitute is the rush- 
bottomed chair and lighted saucer of alcohol 
described in a former chapter. A sulphur 
bath requires a shallow pan of coals with a 
tin water -pan above it, and an elevated seat 
over the whole. Sulphur is thrown on the 
coals, which mingles with the steam, and en- 
ters the system by the pores, which are opened 
by the vapor. The patient, brazier, and chair 
must be enveloped with a water-proof cover- 
ing in the closest manner, leaving only the 
head exposed, so that no sulphurous vapor can 
possibly be breathed, as that would be suf- 
focation at once. In regular bathing estab- 
lishments the patient sits in a wooden box, 
having a cover and a water-proof collar which 
fits tight about the neck, leaving the head out. 
This box is tilled with steam by a pipe, and 
the vapor impregnated with sulphur from a 



BKAN BATHS. 171 

spoonful burning in one corner of the box, 
or from a generator outside with connecting 
tube. It is difficult, if not impossible, to ad- 
minister a sulphur bath without proper and 
special appliances. 

The bran bath, recommended before, is taken 
with a peck of common bran, such as is used 
to stuff pincushions, stirred into a tub of warm 
water. The rubbing of the scaly particles of 
the bran cleanses the skin, while the gluten in 
it softens and strengthens the tissues. Oat- 
meal is even better, as it contains a small 
amount of oil that is good for the skin. For 
susceptible persons, the tepid bran bath is bet- 
Ur than a cold shower-bath. The friction of 
the loose bran calls the circulation to the sur- 
face. In France the bran is tied in a bag for 
the bath, but this gives only the benefit of the 
gluten, not that of the irritation. 

The frequency of the bath should be deter- 
mined, after it has been taken for a week or 
two, by feeling. Take the refreshment as oft- 
en as the system desires it. The harm is done 
12 



172 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

not so much by bathing often as by staying in 
the water long at a time. A hot soap-suds 
bath once a week is beneficial to persons with 
moist and oily skins. Bay-rum and camphor 
may be used to advantage by such persons 
each time after washing the face. The hot 
suds bath should be taken thrice a week by 
those who wish to remove moth patches. 

One of the best ways to make the hands 
soft and white is to wear at night large mit- 
tens of cloth filled with wet bran or oatmeal, 
and tied closely at the wrist. A lady who 
had the finest, softest hands in the county 
confessed that she had a great deal of house- 
work to do, but kept them white by wearing 
bran mittens every night. 

Pastes and poultices for the face owe most 
of their efficacy to the moisture, which dis- 
solves the old coarse skin, and the protection 
they afford from the air, which allows the 
new skin to form tender and delicate. Oat^ 
meal paste is efficacious as any thing, though 
less agreeable than the pastes made with white 



REGIMEN FOR HEPATIC SPOTS. 173 

of egg, alum, and rose-water. The alum as- 
tringes the flesh, making it firm, while the egg 
keeps it> sufficiently soft, and the rose-water 
perfumes the mixture. 

What are called indiscriminately moth, 
mask, morphew, and, by physicians, hepatic 
spots, are the sign of deep-seated disease of 
the liver. Taraxacum, the extract of dande- 
lion root, is the standing remedy for this, 
and the usual prescription is a large pill four 
nights in a week, sometimes for months. To 
this may be added the free use of tomatoes, 
iigs, mustard-seed, and all seedy fruits and 
vegetables, with light broiled meats, and no 
bread but that of coarse flour. Pastry, pud- 
dings of most sorts, and fried food of all kinds 
must be dispensed with by persons having a 
tendency to this disease. It may take six 
weeks, or even months, to make any visible 
impression on either the health or the moth 
patches, but success will come at last. One 
third of a teaspoonf ul of chlorate of soda in 
a wine-glass of water, taken in three doses, 



174: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

before meals, will aid the recovery by neutral- 
izing morbid matters in the stomach. There 
is no sure cosmetic that will reach tiie moth 
patches. Such treatment as described, such 
exercise as is tempting in itself, and gay so- 
ciety, will restore one to conditions of health 
in which the extinction of these blotches is 
certain. 



SYSTEM OF REDUCING FLESH. 175 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Banting System. A Quaint Author. Trials of Corpu- 
lency. Result of Living on Sixpence a Day. Indifference 
of Doctors. A Wise Surgeon. Relation of Glucose to 
Obesity. Diet for Stout People. No Starch, no Sugar. 
Losing Flesh at the Rate of a Pound a Week. " Human 
Beans." Humors of Banting's Tract. His Gratitude. 
Honors to Dr. Harvey. One Day with Dives, the Next 
with Lazarus. Bromide of Ammonia. 

BEQUEST is often made for the details of 
Mr. Banting's system of reducing flesh. The 
popular idea of the writer, whose modest pam- 
phlet has linked his name with the system he 
observed, is very like the caricature of the 
dry modern savant. The severe scientist who 
keeps his child for years without fire or clothes 
to demonstrate the superiority of human be- 
ings to cold, or who throws a new-born baby 
into a tub of water to prove that the race can 
swim by nature, should not be mentioned on 



176 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

the same page with the kindly enthusiast of 
the letter on corpulency. 

There is no evidence in its pages that the 
writer ever tried authorship before. He was 
over sixty-six years old, when, in a burst of 
gratitude for his relief from the burden of too 
much flesh, he took up his pen to tell his fel- 
low-creatures of help for those who suffer a 
like infliction. The quaintness of his pages 
reminds one of Izaak Walton, from his open- 
ing sentences, where he declares, " Of all the 
parasites that affect humanity, I do not know 
of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing 
than that of obesity " an opinion with which 
all his fellow-sufferers will agree. He is fond 
of terming his grievance a parasite, and the 
name slips out with a frequency which is like 
the echo of objurgations hurled at his infirm- 
ity. Being called to account for it later, he 
meekly declares that the word is used wholly 
in a figurative sense. His state might have 
justified a stronger epithet. No parents on 
either side, to use his own phrase, ever showed 



BUKDEN OF THE FLESH. 177 

a tendency to corpulency, but between thirty 
and forty he found the habit growing upon 
him. His physician advised violent exercise, 
and he took to rowing. Finding his flesh in- 
crease, lie consulted "high orthodox authority 
(never any inferior adviser), tried sea air and 
bathing, took gallons of physic and liquor po- 
tassse, always by advice, rode horseback, drank 
the waters of Leamington, Cheltenham, and 
Harrowgate" doses enough, we should think, 
to have disgusted him with life forever 
u lived on sixpence a clay, and earned it, at 
least by hard labor, and used vapor baths 
and shampooing," without any help for his in- 
firmity. 

The rich gentleman found his position, the 
good things of this life, his houses, horses, and 
friends, small enjoyment, save as they lessened 
the increasing burden life heaped upon him. 
He was obedient and intelligent in using every 
means of relief suggested, but his doctors were 
of very small use to him. As he pathetically 
says, " When a corpulent man eats, drinks, and 



178 THE UGLY- GIRL PAPERS. 

sleeps well, has no pain and no organic dis- 
ease, the judgment of able men seems para- 
lyzed." His state was pitiable, and there are 
too many companions in distress who answer 
to the same picture. He could not tie his 
shoe, and often had to go down stairs slowly 
backward, to save the jar of increased weight 
on his ankles and knee-joints. Low living was 
prescribed, and he followed it so heartily that 
he brought his system into a low, irritable 
state, and broke out in boils and large car- 
buncles, for which he had to be treated and 
"toned tip" in a way that brought him into 
heavier condition than ever. 

He speaks feelingly, yet with simple dignity, 
of the trials which stout people endure, being 
crowded in cars and stages, uncomfortable in 
warm theatres and lecture-rooms, besides find- 
ing themselves the butt of ridicule, or, at least, 
the object of remark. The last caused him 
for many years to give up public pleasures. 
Many persons, as they read, will have cause to 
reproach themselves, for those who are con- 



TURKISH BATHS IN CORPULENCY. 179 

siderate of every other species of human in- 
firmity fail to recognize the real suffering of 
those who carry a load of flesh. A sensitive 
person encumbered with adipose feels keenly 
the glances, if not the smiles, which follow his 
entrance into a public vehicle. It is a test of 
delicacy for others to appear unconscious of 
his infirmity. 

When Turkish baths came into fashion, Mr. 
Banting tried them, with the result of six 
pounds' loss after taking fifty baths, which was 
not encouraging, though they have been of 
service in other like instances. In August, 
1862, his case stood thus : He was nearly sixty- 
six years old, five feet five inches high, and 
weighed over two hundred pounds. He went 
to no excess in eating or drinking, his diet 
being chiefly bread, beer, milk, vegetables, 
and pastry. Flesh impeded his breathing, his 
eye-sight failed, and he lost his hearing, yet 
most of the doctors lie went to for relief con- 
sidered his trouble of no account, as one of the 
accompaniments of age, like wrinkles and gray 



180 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

hairs. The faculty are to blame for overlook 
ing such a foe to human comfort. 

Mr. William Harvey, Surgeon of the Koyal 
Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear, was the 
first person wise and considerate enough to 
prescribe a remedy. He reasoned from M. 
Bernard's accepted theory of the product of 
glucose as well as bile from the liver. Glu- 
cose is allied to starch and saccharine mat- 
ter, and is produced in the liver by ingest ion 
of sugar and starch. The substance is always 
present in excess both in diabetes and obesity, 
and it struck this eminent surgeon that the 
same dry diet which drains the excess of glu- 
cose in the former disease might be of service 
in the latter. Abstinence from food contain- 
ing starch and sugar reduces diabetes, and ac- 
cordingly he prescribed it for his patient. He 
was to leave off all bread, milk, butter, beer, 
sugar, and potatoes, besides other root vegeta- 
bles, as these contain the largest amount of fat 
material. 

Yet the diet allowed was liberal. Breakfast 



SPARE DIET. 181 

Was four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kid- 
ney, broiled fish, and any cold meat except 
veal and pork; a large cup of tea without milk 
or sugar, a little biscuit i. ., crackers or an 
ounce of dry toast. 

Dinner : five or six ounces of any fish ex- 
cept salmon, herring, and eels, which are too 
fat ; any vegetables but potatoes, beets, par- 
snips, carrots, or turnips, green vegetables be- 
ing especially good; an ounce of dry toast; 
the fruit of a pudding ; any poultry or game ; 
two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or 
Madeira, but no champagne, port, or beer. 

Tea : two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or 
two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. 
Supper, at nine : three or four ounces of meat 
or fish, and a glass of claret. Before going to 
bed, if desired, a nightcap of grog without sug- 
ar was allowed, or a glass of claret or sherry. 

This was comfortable compared to his for- 
mer diet, which was bread and milk for break- 
fast, or a pint of tea, with plenty of milk and 
sugar, and buttered toast; dinner of meat, 



182 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

beer, bread, of which he ate a great deal, 
and pastry, of which he was fond, with fruit 
tart and bread and meat for supper. Yet on 
the liberal diet his flesh went down at the rate 
of more than a pound a week for thirty-five 
weeks. 

He explains his belief that certain food is 
as bad for elderly people as beans are for 
horses, and thenceforth he calls the forbidden 
food "human beans." He suffers himself to 
make a little mirth over the enemy that held 
him in durance sp long. We can well believe 
he would "scrupulously avoid those beans, 
such as milk, beer, sugar, and potatoes," after 
he had groaned a score of years from " that 
dreadful tormenting parasite on health and 
comfort." He sensibly writes his opinion that 
" corpulence must naturally press with undue 
violence upon the bodily viscera, driving one 
part on another, and stopping the free action 
of all." He calls Mr. Harvey's system "the 
tram-road for obesity," and says, " The great 
charm and comfort of this system is that its 



RESULTS OF CAREFUL DIET. 183 

effects are palpable within one week of 
trial." 

He protests that he found not the slight- 
est inconvenience in the probational remedy, 
which reduced his girth twelve inches and his 
weight thirty-eight pounds in thirty-five weeks. 
He could go up and down stairs naturally, and 
perform every necessary office for himself 
without the slightest trouble; his sight was 
restored, and his hearing unimpaired. In to- 
ken of his gratitude, he gave the doctor, be- 
sides his fees, the sum of 50, to be distrib- 
uted among the hospital patients. To prove 
the reality of his dedication of his letter "to 
the public simply and entirely from an ear- 
nest desire to benefit his fellow-creatures," the 
editions were distributed gratuitously in hopes 
of reaching his fellow-sufferers from flesh. He 
was eager that they should find the relief which 
to him was rapturous. It must have reached 
some cases, for more than 58,000 copies had 
been issued at the date of this edition. The 
author was urged to sell his work, even if the 



184 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

proceeds were given to the poor; but with the 
sensitiveness of a man not used to appear in 
public, he says, " On reflection, I feared my 
motives might be mistaken/' In giving the 
credit of this system to Dr. Harvey, we are 
sure of obeying the wishes of the author, who 
speaks of his benefactor witli extreme grati- 
tude, and says, " He has since been told it is a 
remedy as old as the hills, but the application is 
of recent date." He thinks any one who suf- 
fers from obesity may " prudently mount guard 
over the enemy, if he is not a fool to himself." 
He was so far delivered from his malady as 
to indulge in the forbidden articles of food; 
but says, " I have to keep careful watch, so 
that if I choose to spend a day or two with 
Dives, I must not forget to devote the next to 
Lazarus." 

No medicine was given with this diet save 
a volatile alkali draught in the morning dur- 
ing the first month. This was probably the 
bromide of ammonia, which is of great use in 
reducing an over-amount of flesh. 



ONE OF THE UGLY GIRLS. 185 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A Letter. Trials of a Plain Woman. The Best Husband 
in the World. Burdock Wash for the Hair. For Chil- 
dren's Hair. Oil of Mace as a Stimulant. To Restore 
Color to the Hair. Sperm-oil a Powerful Hair Restorer. 
The Cheapest Hair-Dye. Cure for Chilblains. Loose 
Shoes the Cause of Corns. Pyroligneous Acid for Corns. 
Turpentine and Carbolic Acid for Soft Corns. 

AMONG inquiries not seldom repeated is an 
urgent demand for a prescription to keep the 
hair from coming out. The following letter 
will be acceptable to many readers. 

"I was emphatically one of the 'ugly girls,' being of a 
very large figure, and inheriting thin hair ; otherwise I suited 
myself well enough. But oh ! the agonies I have suffered 
through my personal deficiencies. Now, with a happy home 
of my own and the best husband in the world, I can smile 
at the old distress. Yet it was no less real, and I can pity 
the ugly girls as nobody but one who has 'been there' can. 

" My hair began coming out when I was just in my teens, 
and has always been the trial of my life. I have been up 



186 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

and down the whole scale of restoratives, with all manner 
of recipes volunteered by sympathizing friends. Last fall, 
after returning from a two months' stay near Saratoga, where 
I had undergone a severe course of treatment for sundry phys- 
ical ills, my hair came out frightfully, till I was almost with- 
out any, and nothing seemed to check it. A relative, an old 
lady, told me to use burdock-root tea. I tried it, and it 
worked like a charm. My hair has never grown as it does 
now, and it has absolutely ceased coming out something 
that has not been the case for fifteen years. Something of 
this may be due, as far as growth is concerned, to a receipt 
given me by a friend a month or so ago. It is a family re- 
ceipt, and something of a family secret. The ladies of the 
house, who use it, have magnificent hair, which they attrib- 
ute to this receipt. It is a queer conglomerate, as you see : 
One pound of yellow-dock root, boiled in five pints of water 
till reduced to one pint ; strain, and add an ounce of pulver- 
ized borax, half an ounce of coarse salt, three ounces of sweet- 
oil, a pint of New England rum, and the juice of three large 
red onions, perfumed at pleasure (a quarter of an ounce o^ 
oil of lavender and ten grains of ambergris would be effica. 
cious in overcoming the powerful scent of the ingredients). 

"My little girl has magnificent hair, but it troubles me 
by coming out this winter. As she is only five years old, 
I have hesitated about putting any thing on. I wish you 
would s( me time say if it is best to doctor a child's hair, or 
let nature take its course. I have learned that to shampoo 
the head with cold water every morning is an excellent thing, 



OIL OF MAObi. (87 

ws is an occasional thorough washing with soap-suas, not rins 
ing the soap out completely. I have sometimes checked the 
^ill of hair by such means. The burdock root was also use^ 
yy steeping it in boiling water till a strong tea was madc^ 
and used as a wash two or three times a day, then at longer 
intervals." 

In answer to the query in the excellent let- 
ter above, it may be said that it is always well 
to cure where there is disease. Simple rem- 
edies aid nature. A child's hair is too valu- 
able to lose. One teaspoonful of ammonia to 
a pint of warm water makes a wash that may 
be need on a child's head daily with safety. 
It does riot split the hair, as soap will do if 
left to dry in. 

One of the most powerful stimulants and 
restoratives for the hair is the oil of mace. 
Those who want something to bring hair in 

o o 

again are advised to try it in preference to 
cantharides, which it is said to equal, if not to 
surpass, without the danger of the latter. A 
strong tincture for the hair is made by add 
ing half an ounce of the oil of mace to a 

*>int of deodorized alcohol. Pour a spoonful 
13 



188 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

or two into a saucer; dip a small, stiff brush 
into it, and brush the hair smartly, rubbing 
the tincture well into the roots. On bald 
spots, if hair will start at all, it may be stim- 
ulated by friction with a piece of flannel till 
the skin looks red, and rubbing the tincture 
into the scalp. This process must be repeated 
three times a day for weeks. When the hair 
begins to grow, apply the tincture once a day 
till the growth is well established, bathing the 
head in cold water every morning, and briskly 
brushing it to bring the blood to the surface. 

When the hair loses color, it may be re- 
stored by bathing the head in a weak solution 
of ammonia, an even teaspoonful of carbonate 
of ammonia to a quart of water, washing the 
head with a crash mitten, and brushing the 
hair thoroughly while wet. Bathing the head 
in a strong solution of rock-salt is said to re- 
store gray hair in some cases. Pour boiling 
water on rock-salt in the proportion of two 
heaping table-spoonfuls to a quart of water, 
and let it stand till cold before using. 



A CHEAP IIAIE-DYE. 189 

The old specific of bear's grease for the hair 
is hardly found now, and one can never be 
sure of getting the real article ;' but an equal- 
ly powerful application is discovered in pure 
sperm-oil, of the very freshest, finest quality. 
This forms the basis of successful hair restor- 
atives, and will not fail of effect if used alone. 
It is, however, procured in proper freshness 
only by special importation from the north 
coast of Europe. 

In the list of hair-dyes, one agent has long 
been overlooked which is found in the hum- 
blest households. It is too common and hum- 
ble, indeed, to excite confidence at first ; but 
it is said that the water in which potatoes 
have been boiled with the skins on forms a 
speedy and harmless dye for the hair and eye- 
brows. The parings of potatoes before cook- 
ing may be boiled by themselves, and the wa- 
ter strained off for use. To apply it, the 
shoulders should be covered with cloths to 
protect the dress, and a fine comb dipped in 
the water drawn through the hair, wetting it 



190 THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS. 

at each stroke, till the head is thoroughly 
soaked. Let the hair dry thoroughly before 
putting it up. If the result is not satisfactory 
the first time, repeat the wetting with a sponge, 
taking care not to discolor the skin of the 
brow and neck. Exposing the hair to the sun 
out-of-doors will darken and set this dye. Xo 
hesitation need be felt about trying this, for 
potato - water is a safe article used in the 
household pharmacopoeia in a variety of ways. 
It relieves chilblains if the feet are soaked in 
it while the water is hot, and is said to ease 
rheumatic gout. 

Inquiries have been made after a cure for 
corns. It is not always the case that they 
come from wearing tight shoes. I have seen 
troublesome ones produced by wearing a loose 
cloth shoe that rubbed the sides of the foot. 
It is best always to wear a snugly fitting shoe 
of light, soft leather, not so tight as to be pain- 
ful, nor loose enough to allow the foot to 
spread. The muscles are grateful for a cer- 
tain amount of compression, which -helps them 
to do their work 



APPLICATIONS FOE COENS. 191 

When corns are troublesome, make a shield 
of buckskin leather an inch or two across, with 
a hole cut in the centre the size of the corn ; 
touch the exposed spot with pyroligneous acid, 
which will eat it away in a few applications. 
Eesides this, a strong mixture of carbolic acid 
and glycerine is good say one half as much 
acid as glycerine. Of course, only a very 
small quantity will be needed, and it must be 
kept out of the way, for it is a burning poison. 
In default of these, turpentine may be used 
both for corns and bunions. A weaker solu- 
tion of carbolic acid will heal soft corns be- 
tween the toes. 



192 THE UGLY-GIUF, r.\w:us. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A. Talk about Complexions. Delicate Lotion. Cause of 
Rough Faces. Sun Painting and Bleaching. Court 
Laclies Refusing to Wash their Faces. Experiments 
with Olive-tar. Consumption and Clear Faces. Rev. 
W. H. H. Murray on Olive-tar. Porcelain Women. 
Drawing Humors to the Surface. What is to be Done 
for the Weak Women ? 

A SOUTHERN lady sends the following recipe 
for glycerine lotion, which is refined and pleas- 
ant as well as useful. The pain of sunburned 
and freckled skin, so troublesome to many of 
our fair readers, can be relieved, and the shin- 
ing morning face of youth restored, by this ap- 
plication : Take one ounce of sweet almonds, 
or of pistachio-nuts, half a pint of elder or 
rose water, and one ounce of pure glycerine ; 
grate the nuts, put the powder in a little bag 
of linen, and squeeze it for several minutes in 
the rose-water; then add glycerine and a little 



CLEAN FACES AND CLEAN BODIES. 193 

perfume. It may be used by wetting the face 
with it two or three times a day. This is a 
grateful application for a parched, rough skin. 
It should be allowed to dry thoroughly, when, 
if it feel sticky or pasty, it may be washed off 
with warm water. 

The reason why so many young women 
have rough faces is, they wash their faces ev- 
ery day but neglect to cleanse their bodies. 
The pores are clogged by secretions, and 
morbid matters in the blood break out in the 
only free spot, the face. The ladies of King 
George's court were perfectly logical when 
they refused to wash their faces lest it should 
spoil their complexions. They seldom washed 
either bodies or linen, and it was dangerous to 
give their festering blood an outlet by clear- 
ing a place for it. 

Full-blooded girls whose complexions give 
them trouble should not eat fat meat save in 
the depth of winter, nor drink milk". They 
may take these in after-years, if they grow thin 
and weak from hard work or the nursing of 



194 THE UGLY-GIRL TAPERS. 

children. Their systems can turn the grapes 
and pears they ought to feed on, the fish, 
chicken, and lean meat, the nutty oatmeal and 
wheat cakes (not mushes), into flesh enough to 
round their elbows, and strength enough to 
make their walk like the figure of a dance. 
They should try daily bathing, or rather scrub- 
bing with soap and hot water, followed by a 
cold dip, a process taking a matter of ten min- 
utes a day, at most, if they know the meaning 
of dispatch. Very likely they will need a few 
bottles of Saratoga water or doses of salts to 
clear the blood, adhering religiously to a Gra- 
ham diet the while, or their last state after the 
medicine will be worse than the first. After 
taking the sulphur vapor-baths they must go 
out of doors, and finish bleaching themselves 
in the sun. By living in it five hours a day, 
they may gain the lovely painted marble of 
the English girFs face, who reaps all day in 
the harvest field. 

Cosmetics sometimes play tricks with fair 
skins which are quite mysterious to the un- 



OLIVE- TAK. 195 

lucky subject. This is the case with the tar 
and olive ointment named a few chapters ago. 
Those who find that its application brings out 
a fearful crop of pimples, and turns the skin 
yellow, should feel that the ointment has been 
a friend to them, in detecting a state of the 
blood that is any thing but safe. People of 
sedentary habits, wiio pay little attention to 
their health, are not aware how vitiated their 
blood may be for want of sunshine, good food, 
and exercise. Its torpid current leaves no 
mark of disease on the surface; humors con- 
centrate in the vital organs, and finally appear 
in the form of chronic disorders. Consump- 
tion leaves the skin clear and brilliant, because 
the morbid matters which usually pass off 
through the skin are eating away the life in 
ulcers beneath. The tar brings them to the 
surface, and one application sometimes leaves 
a face in a sorry state. Three ladies of dif- 
ferent families tried the recipe at the same 
time, with frightful results, for the reason that 
they were all in the state when a dose of blood 



196 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPEKS. 

purifier would have Had the same effect. One 
lady kept on using the lotion, and her face 
became smooth after trying it three or four 
times. When people perspire freely, such un- 
happy effects are seldom noticed. Apropos of 
this, come a few lines from W. H. H. Murray, 
the author of the Hand-book of the Adiron- 
dacJcs. A lady who was puzzled by the effect 
of the cosmetic wrote to him about it, knowing 
he was familiar with its use in the mountains, 
and received this merry answer: 

"I have had a hearty laugh over your perplexity. All 
I know is, the mixture was common sailors' tar and sweet- 
oil, with the consistency of sirup. Our party, ladies and 
gentlemen both, have used it freely for years in the woods, 
and the ladies have always declared that it made their skin 
as soft as satin. Certain it is, it never caused any rash in 
their case." 

Delicate, fair-skinned women are the very 
ones on whom this cosmetic will have the 
effect of drawing humors to the surface. 
Heavens! how many of this sort there are in 
the world pale, shadowy as porcelain, fragile 
of bone and tender of skin, about as useful as 



WEAK WOMEN. 197 

wish-bones of a Christmas chicken ! The*y have 
intense souls; it is a pity they have not enough 
body to hold them. Is there not wit enough 
in the world to conjure flesh to the bones and 
strength to the muscles of this great army of 
weak women ? 



198 THE tOLY-GIKL PAPERS. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Sulphur Baths. Bleaching Old Faces. Experiments in 
Bathing. Cautions. Need of Public Baths. Their 
Proper Prices. Method of Giving Sulphur Vapor-baths. 
Hot Baths for Hot Weather. Russian Baths at Home. 
Improvements Needed in Public Baths. What they 
Should be. What they Are. The Russian Vapor-bath. 
After-Sensations. Brightness and Lightness of Health. 
Reverence for the Physical. Influence of Bathing on 
the Nerves and Passions. Necessity of Public Baths. 

IT is not a little amusing to receive requests 
for a way to give sulphur vapor-baths to the 
face alone. Somebody wants a fair complex- 
ion, and fancies it may be gained by bleaching 
the face like an old Leghorn bonnet in a bar- 
rel. Aside from the certainty of being choked 
to death by this method, there is no way of. 
whitening and refining the face by applica- 
tions to it alone, when the conditions of health 
are not regarded in other things. Carbolic 



EXPERIMENTAL BATHING. 199 

acid may heal pimples, and glycerine masks 
soften the skin ; but lovely red and white, 
with lips like currants, and skin like the flesh 
of young cranberries, can not be had unless 
the blood is pure. For this it is indispensable 
that food should be regulated, plenty of ex- 
ercise and sunshine taken, and all the bodily 
functions kept in the best order. 

The woman who thought she could take 
the sulphur vapor -bath at home in her own 
bath-room finds that her experience reads like 
a chapter from the Dan bury News man. A 
bouquet of burning matches would furnish 
the perfume inhaled in the process, and the 
vapor reaching her face, left it pale and 
brown in spots, as if she had moth patches. 
That she escaped with hair only partially 
tinged, and any eyebrows to speak of, is due 
to Nature's guardian care, which prompted the 
struggle for life half a minute sooner than 
pride was inclined to give up. The fumes 
lingering about the premises have induced the 
gravest suspicions on the part of her neigh- 



200 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

bors. She is inclined to think that, if her face 
would only turn brown again ail over, she 
would forego her dreams of Parian brow and 
cheeks like peaches. 

A sulphur vapor-bath is a matter of caution, 
when given by the best of hands. It is not 
well to take it in the dam}), " -breaking-lip" 
weather of March, for the bath opens the 
pores, and catching cold with several grains 
of sulphur in one's body is the next thing to 
salivation by mercury. The consequence is 
that one feels heavy and aching, the eyes 
grow weak, and teeth grumble, while latent 
rheumatic pains wake up to sharp reminder 
of one's imprudence. When the weather is 
warm and settled, these baths are a luxury 
and medicine combined. They are most ef- 
fectual purifiers of the system, searching out 
and removing a ]l ^vaste particles, to leave the 
skin as new and fair as a baby's. I have seen 
old and darkened complexions restored by 
them in a way that was little short of mi- 
raculous. These baths are also of benefit in 



PUBLIC BATHS. 201 

neuralgia, and deal powerfully with scrofulous 
affections. 

The time is not far distant when every town 
that owns a public hall will also have its pub- 
lic baths. Before that time comes, physicians 
ought to moderate the charges for these rem- 
edial agents. Outside of our large cities, the 
cost of taking sulphur vapor-baths is $5 each, 
and they are given only in series, as pre- 
scribed by the judgment or humor of the 
physician. When will people learn the .laws 
and habits of their own bodies, so that they 
need not be at the mercy of every specialist 
who chooses to make money out of their emer- 
gencies ? For the benefit of outsiders it ought 
to be said that the charge in the best establish- 
ments of New York is not higher than $2 50 
for the single bath, and a great reduction from 
this is common. 

The essential difficulty of the sulphur-vapor 
treatment is to keep from the face the powerful 
fumes, which are dangerous to breathe. For 
this object the bather enters a wooden box, 



202 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

with a cover that fits the neck. She takes a 
seat in the box undressed, and the cover is 
adjusted so that only the head is left out. 
Cloths or a rubber collar are closely drawn 
about the neck to prevent the least escape of 
gas, and a wet sponge is laid on the top of 
the head, or, what is better, a very wet towel 
folded turban wise round the back of it, and 
over the top, thus cooling the base of the 
brain, the side arteries, and sensitive upper 
part. This compress must be frequently wet 
with cold water during the bath a precaution 
which removes the danger of apoplectic seiz- 
ures by the intense heating of the blood. 
Steam charged with sulphur is then let into 
the box by pipes, and in three minutes the 
perspiration flows as if the luckless victim 
were melting away. In the best establish- 
ments an attendant fans the bather all the 
time the steam is let on, to cool the head, 
into which the heated blood rushes in a way 
that makes the wet towel smoke directly. 
And this is an attention the patient must 



BENEFITS OF HOT BATHS. 203 

insist upon, for faintness or apoplexy may be 
the alternative. 

In the sultry and oppressive weather of 
summer the hot bath is of all others most 
cooling. No matter how heated the system, 
water as hot as possible is the safest and most 
efficient relief. One wants to remain in it 
long enough to give every part of the body a 
thorough scrubbing with soap and a mohair 
wash-cloth, which cleanses the skin more thor- 
oughly than a brush. The hot water dis- 
solves every particle of matter that clogs the 
pores, the rough cloth and soap remove it 
searchingly, and the towel is hardly laid aside 
before a delicious coolness and freshness passes 
upon one, like that of a dewy summer morn- 
ing. The dangers resulting from a sudden 
check of perspiration by plunging into cold 
water when overheated, or by sitting in a 
draught to cool, are avoided, and a greater 
sense of coolness follows. People who suffer 
much in warm weather should reckon this a 

daily solace. All enervating effects are warded 
14 



204 THE UGLY - GIKL PAPERS. 

off by an instant's plunge into cool water of, 
say, seventy degrees. I say cool, for it certain- 
ly will feel as if iced after a bath of nearly 
a hundred and fifty degrees. In a common 
bath-room, by this means, one may experience 
much of the real benefit of a Russian vapor- 
bath. 

The bath lasts fifteen minutes, when the 
vapor is turned off. When the steam in the 
box has had time to condense, the cover is un- 
jointed, and the bather treated to a scrubbing 
with soap and warm water, which gradually 
cools and cleanses the body. Then cooler wa- 
ter is poured over the body, and, after wiping, 
one is wrapped in a fresh sheet and lies down 
to pleasant dreams. 

It is hard that such a necessary requisite 
to the highest vigor should rank, as it does, 
among luxuries. One can hardly imagine an 
addition to a fine house more desirable than 
a bathing-hall, such as Roman patricians add- 
ed to their palaces, where any form of vapor 
or hot bath was at command. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN PUBLIC BATHS. 205 

Many improvements are needed in our pub- 
lic baths. There should be small dressing- 
closets, as there are at swimming-baths, where 
one's clothes may be kept from contact with 
beds on which a thousand people rest in the 
course of a year. The reposing-hall should be 
well lighted, and paved with tiles, instead of 
being spread with bits of carpet to be tossed 
about ; and there should be ample space be 
hveen the couches. Every thing should con- 
vey the impression of space and repose of 
sunshine, for the sake of its reviving power, 
and of refinement, for the soothing it always 
brings the nerves. 

Usually the bath-house is built in a court- 
yard, where high walls on eveiy side shut out 
the sunlight. The basement dressing-room is 
tilled with narrow couches covered with light 
rubber sheets, suggestive of nothing more pleas- 
ant than cast-off clothing, and rest measured 
by the bath clock, when one's pillow must be 
*i ven up to a new T -comer. 

From this huddled room the bather steps 



206 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

into one beyond summer heat, dark and drip- 
ping with moisture, with a plunge bath in 
the centre. Passing through it, one finds 
next what seems like a wide marble staircase 
running the length of each side almost to 
the low roof, with gratings let in the face of 
the steps. The bather ascends one of these 
stony couches, and lies down with head on the 
stony pillow carved every six feet or so for 
the purpose. Wrapped in a sheet, already wet 
with moisture since leaving the dressing-room, 
a large sponge dipped in cold water at the 
back of one's head, and another at the month 
and nose, one feels as if there were perspira- 
tion enough already for sanitary purposes; 
but when, with a hiss and a roar, the steam is 
let on through the gratings, one finds the dif 
ference. Eolling vapor fills the room, so dense 
that every outline is shut out as completely as 
in the darkest night. The heat rises to suffoca- 
tion, the new bather thinks, and rushes again 
and again to the douche against the wall to 
wet her throbbing head, or into the next room, 



AFTER THE BATH. 207 

which seems cool as a waterfall, for a gasp of 
air that she can breathe. Old and experienced 
bathers lie still, declaring that, with head down 
and the wet sponge pressed to the nose, they 
breathe without difficulty. What was perspi- 
ration is literally a flowing away in rills and 
sheets of water that drip from the bather's 
reeking sides. One seems to have turned to 
jelly, and submits helplessly to the scrubbing- 
brush and final shower-bath of water at eighty 
degrees, which causes a shiver by contrast. 

The outer room is refreshing in its coolness, 
and one wraps a dry sheet and blanket round 
one and lies down on the India-rubber cloth 
in dreamy indifference to all the rest of the 
world. 

What follows is Elysium. Every ache and 
pain, every care, is dispelled in a trance of rest. 

All the descriptions by Eastern travelers 
of the luxury of the bath are found true in 
this last stage of enjoyment. One is rejuve- 
nated, entranced, and sinks into a light sleep, 
whose approach seems a prelude to paradise. 



208 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

The eyes close to keep out the sordid sur- 
roundings of the bathing -room ; and every 
idea, or rather sensation for the brain is too 
passive to think is bliss. This is the dolce 
far niente Italians aspire to the sum of all 
delight possible to sensation. Passion and 
rapture have no charms that equal it. It is 
the death and extinction of all pain. Quite 
as beautiful is the return to consciousness, 
%ense after sense regaining double brightness 
as softly and steadily as the unfolding of a 
flower. 

After a reluctant waking and going out into 
the sunlight again one seems to have found a 
new self. The feather-like lightness and elas- 
ticity of every limb amount almost to delirium, 
they are so different from one's usual dullness. 
It is freedom that feels like flying. If this is 
simply health, in our common state we must 
be farther toward extinction than we imagine. 

In this state of purity and light one learns 
to reverence one's physical self. A body that 
at its best is so glorious and happy ought not 



MORAL EFFECTS OF THE BATH. 209 

to be exposed to the disturbance of appetite 
and the contact of gross things. We need to 
be very much more refined in our living, eat- 
ing, and breathing. We ought to be nicer 
about our clothes and our food, choosing the 
best of meats, and fruit far better than we are 
now content with, and should place our dwell- 
ings out of the reach of the least impure air. In 
this altered and steadied frame evil dispositions 
lose their sway. Irritable temper is soothed, 
despondency flees as by magic, and fiercer pas- 
sions lie asleep as at the stroking of their 
manes. If any one should read this page who 
battles with unnatural desires, which make life 
less blessed and lofty than it was meant to Be, 
let her have recourse to this efficient ally. It 
will restore one from the horrible depression 
which craves alcohol or opium, it will res- 
cue from the perilous excitement of over- 
wrought nerves or too much brain-work, and 
banish those morbid feelings which consciously 
or unconsciously incline to impurity of im- 
agination if not of life. The purity of the 



210 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

body and the soul are too closely interwoven 
for any one to dare neglect them. 

In the old time, saints used to subdue the 
body by prayer and fasting. The modern 
way is by prayer and bathing. 

It is hard enough to keep a peaceable, 
firm, and sweet habit of soul without letting 
loose on it the humors and insanities of the 
body. These are in no way so surely quelled 
as by warm baths, and this is why they ought 
to be among the public buildings of every 
village, and made as cheap as possible. There 
the drunkard might find a stimulus which 
has no reaction, the emotionally insane a seda- 
tive that would clear his brain and steady his 
nerves. There the exhausted watcher by the 
sick might recruit, and the overwrought stu- 
dent, lawyer, or physician find support without 
recourse to perilous stimulants. The doors of 
such a place in a large city should stand open 
night and day, like those of churches. 

Women need the bath for all these purposes 
even more than men. The feeble mother 



BATHS FOR WOMEN. 211 

will find no soothing for her jarred nerves or 
lightener of her burdens like the well-applied 
bath. Strange as it sounds, the vapor-bath 
does not weaken. It washes away the worse 
particles of the body that weigh it down, and 
leaves it as if winged. I have known an in- 
valid of years take it twice and thrice a week, 
gaining strength every time. If harm came, it 
is because the head was not kept cool by fan- 
ning, or because the final sponging was not 
gradual enough. There is harm in every 
remedy used unskillfully. It is the doctor's 
province to direct in such matters, always pre- 
mising that the best and wisest physicians pre- 
fer to teach their clients the rules of health 
and treatment for themselves, and seldom re- 
fuse to give the reason and theory of their 
orders. It is safe to be shy of the perceptions 
and methods of a doctor who doesn't like to 
tell what medicines he gives, and why he gives 
them. The keenest and best medical men are 
impatient to have others see and understand 
the truth as well as themselves. 



212 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

Devices of Uneasy Age. Bread Paste and Court-plaster 
to Conceal Wrinkles. Accepting the Situation. Plain 
Women and Agreeable Toilets. Examples. The Rec- 
tor's Daughter. Dressing on Two Hundred a Year. 
Ecru Linen and White Xansook. A Senator's Wife. 
A Washington Success. Dull, Thin Faces. Hay-colored 
Hair. Advantages of Lining Rooms with Mirrors. 

DID you ever go to see a lady, not of un- 
certain but of uneasy age, and find yourself 
ushered into the family sitting-room by a new 
servant, who did not know the ways of the 
house ? Did you find her with a court-plaster 
lozenge an inch wide between her eyes, and 
one at the outer ends of her eyebrows? At 
sight of this remarkable ornament, did con- 
cern express itself lest she had fallen down 
stairs, or had a difference with the cat? Were 
these insinuations parried with veteran re- 
sources, and were you dissuaded from further 



AVERTING WRINKLES. 213 

1 inquiry by the delicate remark that she could 
interest you better than by giving the history 
of her scratches ? Of course you knew there 
was a mystery about those bits of court-plaster, 
and perhap^ xeel so to this day, unless Nature 
have given you tho mind of a detective. If 
so, your patience is to be rewarded. The 
secret of those patches was not scratches, but 
wrinkles. 

I trust due tribute will be paid to the inge- 
nuity of failing age, which has perfected this 
device for warding off its unwelcome tokens. 
The rationale of the plan is very simple. The 
plaster contracts the skin, and prevents its 
sinking into creases and lines. It also pro- 
tects and softens the skin. I have heard of 
one oldish lady who wears these ornamental 
appendages^all the time in the house when not 
receiving company, and covers parts of her 
face with a dough made of well -mumbled 
bread to keep her complexion fair. The hero- 
ism of this resistance to time must be ap- 
plauded, but it is an open question whether 



THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS. 

the play is worth the candle. The beauty of 
age lies not in freshness like that of sixteen, 
but in clear and lofty expression, in the look of 
experience and not unkindly shrewdness, in the 
finish of self-repression, of calmness, trust, and 
sympathy. These things grow on a face as it 
loses freshness and roundness, just as the sky 
begins to show through thinning boughs. 

The greatest of blessings for some people 
would be to learn to accept themselves and 
their gifts. If they could stand apart from 
themselves a while to see their becoming 
points, much of their repining would be drop- 
ped. Every thing and every body is beautiful 
in its season. There is a wholesome plainness 
that accords with domestic life and natural 
surroundings, as the bark of trees relieves their 
green. The color of health, the gentleness 
and sweetness that come of a conquered self, 
are elements of beauty that make any face 
tolerable. How dear are the plain faces that 
have watched our childhood, with whom we 
have grown up so closely that feature and 



LESSONS IN DKESS. 215 

form have lost their significance, so that we 
really do not know whether they are homely 
or not, and see only the love or the humor 
that lives in their faces. In general, very 
ugly people are happily indifferent to their 
looks, and degrees of imperfection may al- 
ways be lessened by judicious use of the arts 
of dress. 

A young and homely woman makes her- 
self agreeable by the complete neatness of 
a very simple toilet. Let her eschew dresses 
of two colors, or of two shades even, though 
the latter are allowable, if the shadings are 
very soft. When the complexion is dull, there 
must be some warm or lively tinges of color 
in the costume, and vice versa. But it is eas- 
ier to dress real figures than to generalize. 

Cornelia Jackson is the rector's daughter, 
and hasn't above $200 a year to spend on her 
clothes and to buy Christmas presents. She 
is a little too plump, is brown, with some 
warm color in her cheeks in summer,, and has 
hair. Her face never would be notice^ 



216 THE UGLY- GIRL PAPERS. 

except for the jollity lurking in it, which she 
inherits from her father. In winter and fall, 
when she looks pale, she "tones up" with a 
morning dress of all-wool stuff, one of those 
brown grounds with small bunches of bril 
liant crimson or purple flowers a cheery pat- 
tern that the rector likes behind the coffee 
urn of a cold morning with crisp white 
ruffles, set off by the brown dress. Crimson 
01* purple, in soft brilliant shades, are her 
colors for neck -ties. Her street dress is a 
dark walnut-brown (doth, trimmed with cros& 
cut velvet the same shade. The over-skirts of 
Cornelia's dresses are always long, so that she 
will not look like a fishing-bob or a doll pin- 
cushion ; and there is deep rose -color about 
her bonnet. Xot roses, by-the-way she has 
an unspoken feeling that it is not for every 
body to wear roses but velvety mallows and 
double stocks, imitations of fragrant common 
garden flowers that are very like herself. The 
brown and crimson maiden is a pleasant sight 
of a whitei's day, when the gray of the church 



TOILETS FOR THE SEASONS. 217 

and white of the snow need something warm 
to come between them. In summer she chooses, 
or her cousin in New York chooses for her, not 
the light percales that every one else is wear- 
ing, nor the grays and stone-colors that walk to 
church every Sunday, but ecru linens, with re- 
lief of black or brown for morning, when she 
goes from pantry to garden, and from sewing- 
machine to nursery. Afternoons she doesn't 
divide herself by putting on a white blouse 
and colored skirt, or a buff redingote over a 
black train, but wears a dress of one color, 
that looks as if it were meant to stay at home. 
White nansook is her delight, its semi-train 
parency wonderfully suiting her clear brown- 
ness, but solid white linen or cambric she es- 
chews. Soft violet jaconet, am? the whole 
family of lilacs, are made for her ; and she is 
luxurious in ruffles and flounces on her demi- 
trained skirts, since she makes and often irons 
them herself. Black grenadine, of course, she 
wears, with high lining to give her waist its 
full length, every bit of which it needs; and 



218 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

she is not too utilitarian to neglect the aid 
which a modest demi-train on a house dress 
gives to her height. All the other girls may 
wear puffed waists and pleated waists. She 
knows they are not for her plump shoulders, 
though clusters of fine tucks on a blouse give 
length to the waist, and lessen the width of 
the back. Shawls she never wears, nor short 
perky basques, that are considered I don't 
know why the proper thing for stout fig- 
ures. Her choice is the long polonaise, and 
the French jacket, which by its short shoulders 
and simple lines conveys a decent comeliness 
of figure to any one who wears it. If she had 
a party dress, it would be white muslin, or 
light silvery green silk, trimmed with pleat- 
ings of tulle, and with them she would wear 
her mother's pearls, or her own fine carbuncles. 
Mrs. Senator, with all her fortune and posi- 
tion, is doomed to hear people speak of her in 
under-tones at parties, " She is rich, but very 
plain." Being a shrewd woman, she does not 
waste her efforts on trying to alter her thin 



A KEAL PICTURE. 219 

features, nor does she make herself ridiculous 
by a false complexion of rouge and pearl-pow- 
der, though her face and her hair are about of 
a brownness. But on her entry into Washing- 
ton society she defied criticism by appearing 
with her hair creped to show its soft brown 
lights and shades, and give the best outline 
to her head, her gypsy face opposed to a dead 
white silk, of Parisian origin, with flounce of 
pleated muslin, and corsage trimmings of rich 
lace. It is a real dress and a real woman 
that is described, and it is no fiction that she 
was the success of the evening. The color- 
less dress without reflets, and her ornaments 
of clustered pearls, were in most artistic con- 
trast to the nut-brown hair and dusky face. 
A spot of color would have destroyed the 
charm. The dress stamped her, as she was, a 
woman of skill sufficient to draw from the 
most unlikely combination the elements of 
novel and complete success. 

The girl who sits near me at the hotel table 

tries my eyes with her thin, curious features, 
15 



220 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAP^iiS. 



her pale, frizzed hair, that makes her face 
more peaked than it is, and her oversized 
skirts. She ought not to wear those light 
dresses, for she has no color, and her thin 
complexion is not even clear. She has that 
difficult figure to dispose of, which is at once 
girlish and tall, without seeming so. A trained 
dress would make her look lean, so she should 
dispense with a large tourimre, and let her 
dresses brush the floor a few inches, wearing 
as many small flounces below the knee as 
fashion and sense allow. If her mother, who 
is rather a strict lady, would insist on having 
the girl's dresses made with puffed waists, or 
loose blouses of thick linen, instead of the 
Victoria lawns that iron so flat, and show 
the poor shoulder-blades frightfully, the effect 
would be rather delightful. She ought to 
wear puffed grenadines and lenos of maroon, 
rosy lilac, or deep green the first lighted with 
pale rosy bows at the throat and in the hair, 
the latter with light green and white, the lilac 
with periwinkle knots. How one would like 



f 

COIFFURES FOR THIN FACES. 221 

to dress her over again, and turn the poor 
thing out charming as she ought to be. Her 
hair-dressing would all have to be done over 
again. Sharp-featured people shouldn't wear 
curls, which make the peaked effect still more 
prominent. Soft waves, drawn lightly away 
from the face and brushed up from the neck 
behind, would be better, and smooth braids 
best of all, with little waves peeping out under 
them. If the young woman could train her- 
self not to be excitable, or to smile so over- 
comingly, and not be so eager to meet new ac- 
quaintances, she would make a pleasing im- 
pression, while now she gets snubbed in a tacit 
way, and those who take her up out of pity 
hardly feel as if they were paid for it. If 
women with hay-colored hair could be brought 
to believe that light brown, of all others, wasn't 
the color for their style, one could afford to 
overlook minor deficiencies. 

One is tempted to think sometimes that 
there is a loss in not adopting the French plan 
of lining houses with mirrors. If people con- 



THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

tinually caught sight of themselves, they would 
hardly indulge in the grimaces and gaucheries 
which they inflict on the world. It could hard- 
ly lead to vanity in most cases, and would settle 
many vexing problems of dress and demeanor. 
One is not always to be censured for studying 
the glass. The orator must use it to learn 
how to deliver his sentences with proper 
facial play and easy gesture. The public 
singer studies with a mirror on the music- 
rack to get the right position of the mouth 
for issuing the voice without making a face. 
The want of such training mars the work of 
some great artists with blemishes which nearly 
undo the effect of their talents. 

The injunction that all things should be 
done decently and in order means that they 
ought to be pleasing. The study of ourselves 
can hardly be complete without the aid of the 
mirror, which shows candidly the cold smile, 
the vacant, bashful gaze, we give our fellow 
beings, instead of the decent attention, the 
kind, full glance it is meet they should have 



THE GOOD OF MIRRORS. 223 

from us, and which we prefer to receive from 
them. It shows the frown, the sour melan- 
choly, which creep over the face in reveries, 
and leads us to try and feel pleasant that we 
may look so. How much confidence one as- 
suring glance at a mirror has given ns in going 
to receive a visitor, and what kindly warning 
of what w r as amiss in expression or toilet be- 
fore it was too late ! Is our vanity so easily 
excited that we are ready to fall in love with 
ourselves at sight ? The intimate acquaintance 
with our appearance which the glass can give 
is more likely to make one genuinely humble. 
In a world which owns among its maxims the 
gay and wicked refrain of "manners for us, 
morals for those who like them," good people 
can not afford to neglect either their toilets 
or their mirrors. 



224 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPERS, 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Physical Education of Girls. A Woman's Value in the 
World. High-bred Figures. Antique Races. Inspira- 
tion of Art not Vanity. The Trying Age. Dress, 
Food, and Bathing for Young Girls. A Veto on Close 
Study. Braces and Backboards. Never Talk of Girls' 
Feelings. Exercise for the Arms. Singing Scales with 
Corsets off. Development of the Bust. Open-work Cor- 
sets the Best. The Bayaderes of India and their Forms. 
The Delicacy due Young Girls. A Frank but Needed 
Caution. Care of the Figure after Nursing. 

AMERICAN girls begin to make much of 
physical culture. As they advance in refine- 
ment they see how much of their value in so- 
ciety depends on the nerve and spirit which 
accompanies thorough development. It is not 
enough that they know how to dance languid- 
ly, and carry themselves in company. To dis- 
tinguish herself, a young belle must row, swim, 
skate, ride, and even shoot, to say nothing of 



THE BEST FIGURE. 225 

lessons in fencing, which noble ladies in Ger- 
many, and some of foreign family here, take 
to develop sureness of hand and agility. The 
heavy, flat-footed creature who can not walk 
across a room without betraying the bad terms 
her joints are on with each other, must have 
a splendid face and fortune to keep any place 
in the world, no matter how good her family, 
or how varied her acquirements, though she 
speaks seven languages like a native, and has 
played sonatas since she was eight years old. 
A woman's value depends entirely on her use 
to the world and to that person who happens 
to have the most of her society. A man likes 
the society of. a woman who can walk a mile 
or two to see an interesting view, and can 
take long journeys without being laid up by 
them. He likes smooth motions, round arms 
and throat, head held straight, and shoulders 
that do not bow out. When you see that a 
fine figure must be a straight line from the 
roots of the hair to the base of the shoulder- 
blade, you will realize how few women ap- 



226 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

proach this high-bred ideal. Special culture, 
indeed, is discerned where sncli excellence of 
line meets the eye. The polished races of the 
East, who, untutored and degraded, yet have 
the entail of antique subtlety and art, inherit 
such figures along with the proverbs of sages 
and palace mosaics. The best -born of all 
countries have this noble set of head, this 
lance - like figure, and easy play of limb. 
As surely as one can be educated to right 
thoughts and manners, so the motions and 
poise of limb can be trained to correctness. 
The work must begin early. A girl should 
be put in training as soon as she passes from 
the plumpness of childhood into the ugly 
age of development. The mother should in- 
spect her dressing to see what improvement is 
needed, and stimulate the child by the desire 
to possess beautiful limbs and figure. The 
senses are early awake to the sense of grace. 
There is no better way to inspire a girl with it 
than to take her to picture-galleries, show the 
faces of historical beauties, or the figures of 



GROWING GIRLS. 227 

Italian sculpture, and ask her if she would 
not like to have the same fine points herself. 
This substitutes the love of art for that of ad- 
miration, and makes self-cultivation too deep 
a tiling for vanity. 

There is a time when girls are awkward, 
indolent, and capricious. Their boisterous 
spirits at one time, their sickly minauderies at 
another, are very trying to mothers and teach- 
ers. The cause is often set down as depravity, 
when it is only nature. Girls are lapsided 
and indolent because they are weak or lan- 
guid, between which and being lazy there is 
a vast difference. They have demanding ap- 
petites that strike grown people with wonder. 
They go frantic on short notice when their 
wishes are crossed. Mother, if such is the 
case, your growing girl is weak. The nursery 
bath Saturday night is not enough. Encour- 
age her to take a sponge-bath every day. 
When she comes in heated from a long walk 
or play, see that she bathes her knees, elbows, 
and feet in cold water, to prevent her growing 



^ THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

nervous with fatigue when the excitement is 
over. See that she does not suffer from cold, 
and that she is not too warmly dressed, re- 
membering a plump, active child will suffer 
with heat under the clothes it takes to keep 
you comfortable. If she is thin and sensitive, 
care must be taken against sudden chills. 
Keep her on very simple but well-flavored 
diet, with plenty of sour fruit, if she crave it, 
for the young have a facility for growing bil- 
ious, which acids correct. Sweet-pickles not 
too highly spiced are favorites with children, 
and better than sweetmeats. Nuts and rai- 
sins are more wholesome than candies. New 
cheese and cream are to be preferred to butter 
with bread and vegetables. Soup and a little 
of the best and juiciest meat should be given 
at dinner. But the miscellaneous stuffing that 
half -grown girls are allowed to indulge in 
ruins their complexion, temper, and digestion. 
Xo coffee nor tea should be taken by any hu- 
man being till it is full-grown. The excite- 
ment of young nerves by these drinks is ruin- 



PROPORTION OF WORK AND PLAY. 229 

ous. Besides, the luxury and the stimulus is 
greater to the adult when debarred from these 
thin os through childhood. Neither mind nor 

o o 

body should be worked till maturity. Chil- 
dren will do all they ought in study and 
work without much urging; and they will 
learn more and remember more in two hours 
of study to five of play, than if the order is 
inverted. Say to a child, Get this lesson and 
you may go to play and you will be astonish- 
ed to see how rapidly it learns; but if one les- 
son is to succeed another till six dreary hours 
have dragged away, it loses heart, and learns 
merely what can not well be helped. A girl 
under eighteen ought not to practice at the 
piano or sit at a desk more than three quar- 
ters of an hour at a time. Then she should 
run out-of-doors ten minutes, or exercise, to 
relieve the nerves. An adult never ought to 
study or sit more than an hour without brief 
change before passing to the next. This 
keeps the head clearer, the limbs fresher, and 
carries one through a day with less fatigue 



230 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

than if one worked eight hours and then rest- 
ed four. 

Thoughtful teachers do not share the preju- 
dice against braces and backboards for keep- 
ing the figure straight, especially when young. 
It is the instinct of barbarous nations to use 
such aids in compelling erectness in their chil- 
dren. These appliances need not be painful 
in the least, but rather relieve tender muscles 
and bones. Languid girls should take cool 
sitz-baths to strengthen the muscles of the 
back and hips, which are more than ordinari- 
ly susceptible of fatigue when childhood is 
over. But never talk of a girl's feelings in 
mind or body before her, or suffer her to 
dwell on them. The effect is bad physically 
and mentally. See that these injunctions are 
obeyed implicitly ; spare her the whys and 
wherefores. It is enough for her to know 
that she will feel better for them. Of all 
things, deliver us from valetudinarians of fif- 
teen. Xever laugh at them; never sneer; 
never indulge them in self-condolings. Be 



FORMING THE LIMBS. 



231 



pitiful and sympathetic, but steadily turn their 
attention to something interesting outside of 
themselves. 

Special means are essential to special growth. 
Throwing quoits and sweeping are good exer- 
cises to develop the arms. There is nothing 
like three hours of house-work a day for giv- 
ing a woman a good figure, and if she sleep 
in tight cosmetic gloves, she need not fear that 
her hands will be spoiled. The time to form 
the hands is in youth, and with thimbles for 
the finger-tips, and close gloves lined with 
cold cream, every mother might secure a good 
hand for her daughter. She should be partic- 
ular to see that long-wristed lisle-thread gloves 
are drawn on every time the girl goes out, 
Veils she should discard, except in cold and 
windy weather, when they should be drawn 
close over the head. A broad-leafed hat for 
the country is protection enough for the sum- 
mer ; the rest of the year the complexion 
needs all the sun it can get. 

There is commonly a want of fullness in 



232 THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS. 

those muscles of the shoulder which give its 
graceful slope. This is developed by the 
use of the skipping-rope, in swinging it over 
the head, and by battledoor, which keeps the 
arms extended, at the same time using the 
muscles of the neck and shoulders. Swinging 
by the hands from a rope is capital, and so is 
swinging from a bar. These muscles are the 
last to receive exercise in common modes of 
life, and playing ball, bean-bags, or pillow- 
fights are convenient ways of calling them 
into action. Singing scales with corsets off, 
shoulders thrown back, lungs deeply inflated^ 
mouth wide open, and breath held, is the best 
tuition for insuring that fullness to the upper 
part of the chest which gives majesty to a 
figure even when the bust is meagre. These 
scales should be practiced half an hour morn- 
ing and afternoon, gaining two ends at once 
increase of voice and perfection of figure. 

This brings us to the inquiries made by 
more than one correspondent for some means 
of developing the bust. Every mother should 



CORSETS FOR GIRLS. 233 

pay attention to this matter before her dangh* 
ters think of such a thing for themselves, by 
seeing that their dresses are never in the least 
constricted across the chest, and that a fool- 
ish dressmaker never puts padding into their 
waists. The horrible custom of wearing pads 
is the ruin of natural figures, by heating and 
pressing down the bosom. This most delicate 
and sensitive part of a woman's form must al- 
ways be kept cool, and well supported by a 
linen corset. The open-worked ones are by 
far the best, and the compression, if any, should 
not be over the heart and fixed ribs, as it gen- 
erally is, but just at the waist, for not more 
than the width of a broad waistband. Six 
inches of thick coutille over the heart and 
stomach those parts of the body that have 
most vital heat must surely disorder them and 
affect the bust as well. It would be better if 
the coutille were over the shoulders or the ab- 
domen, and the whalebones of the corset held 
together by broad tapes, so that there would 
be less dressing over the heart, instead of 



234: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

more. A low, deep bosom, rather than a bold 
wie, is a sign of grace in a full-grown woman, 
and a full bust is hardly admirable in an un- 
married girl. Her figure should be all curves, 
but slender, promising a fuller beauty when 
maturity is reached. One is not fond of over- 
ripe pears. 

Flat figures are best dissembled by puffed 
and shirred blouse- waists, or by corsets with a 
fine rattan run in the top of the bosom gore, 
which throws out the fullness sufficiently to 
Jook well in a plain corsage. Of all things, 
India-rubber pads act most injuriously by 
constantly sweating the skin, and ruining the 
bust beyond hope of restoration. To improve 
its outlines, wear a linen corset fitting so close 
at the end of the top gores as to support the 
bosom well. For this the corset must be fitted 
to the skin, and worn next the under-flannel. 
Night and morning wash the bust in the cold- 
est water sponging it upward, but never 
clown. Madame Celnart relates that the bay- 
aderes of India cultivate their forms by wear- 



CAUTION TO MOTHERS. 235 

ing a cincture of linen under the breasts, and 
at night chafing them lightly with a piece of 
linen. The breasts should never be touched 
but with the utmost delicacy, as other treat- 
ment renders them weak and flaccid, and not 
unfrequently results in cancer. A baby's bite 
has more than once inflicted this disease upon 
its mother. But one thing is to be solemnly 
cautioned, that no human being doctor, nurse, 
nor the mother herself on any pretense, save 
in case of accident, be allowed to touch a girl's 
figure. It would be unnecessary to say this, 
were not Frencli and Irish nurses, especially 
old and experienced, ones, sometimes in the 
habit of stroking the figures of young girls 
committed to their charge, with the idea of 
developing them. This is not mentioned from 
hearsay. Mothers can not be too careful how 
they leave their children with even well-mean- 
ing servants. A young girl's body is more 
sensitive than any harp is to the air that plays 
upon it. Nature free, uneducated, and direct 

responds to every touch on that seat of the 
16 



236 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

nerves, the bosom, by an excitement that is 
simply ruinous to a child's nervous system. 
This is pretty plain talking, but no plainer 
than the subject demands. Girls are very dif- 
ferent in their feelings. Some affectionate, 
innocent, hearty natures remain through their 
lives as simple as when they were babes taking 
their bath under their mothers' hands; while 
others, equally innocent but more susceptible, 
require to be guarded and sheltered even from 
the violence of a caress as if from contagion 
and pain. 

Due attention to the general health always 
has its effect in restoring the bust to its round- 
ness. It is a mistake that it is irremediably 
injured by nursing children. A babe may be 
taught not to pinch and bite its mother, and 
the exercise of a natural function can injure 
her in no way, if proper care is taken to sus- 
tain the system at the same time. Cold com- 
presses of wet linen worn over the breast are 
very soothing and beneficial, provided they do 
not strike a chill to a weak chest. At the 



RESTORING THE FIGUKE. 237 

same "time, the cincture should be carefully 
adjusted. Weakness of any kind affects the 
contour of the figure, and it is useless to try to 
improve it in any other way than by restoring 
the strength where it is wanting. Tepid sitz- 
baths strengthen the muscles of the hips, and 
do away with that dragging which injures the 
firmness of the bosom. Bathing in water to 
which ammonia is added strengthens the skin, 
but the use of camphor to dry the milk after 
weaning a child is reprehensible. JSTo drying 
or heating lotions of any kind should ever be 
applied except in illness. t 



238 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPEES. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Hands and Complexions. Preparing for Parties. Refining 
Rough Faces. Carbolic Baths. Chalk and Cascarilla. 
Glycerine Wash. School -girls' Flushed Hands and 
Faces. To Soften the Hands. Red Noses. Secrets of 
Making-np. Cologne for the Eyes. Cosmetic Gloves. 
To Impart a Brilliant Complexion. 

PEOPLE are in trouble in cold weather about 
their hands and their complexions, which take 
the time when parties abound, and owners 
need their very best looks, to put on a ruinous 
air. It is more than suspected that the young 
lady who begs for some good face powder or 
wash that will hide a bad complexion without 
spoiling it entirely, has the end in view of 
making herself presentable in society for the 
winter. Her entirely reasonable request shall 
be attended to, no less on her own account 
than because she writes in the name of four 
devoted subscribers. Carbolic soaps fail to 



PIMPLES AND FEVERS. 239 

remove the roughness of her used complexion, 
and internal remedies must be resorted to. 
These should be prescribed by a physician, and 
would be passed over at once to his province 
had not long experience shown that doctors 
scoff at the idea of prescribing for such puny 
troubles as flesh -worms and pimples while 
there are so many typhoid fevers and chronic 
ulcers to be treated. The pimples foretold 
the fever, and the impurities that first showed 
themselves in the shape of "black-heads" 
might have been discharged at the time, and 
not left to malignant issues. Pimples are dis- 
ease of a light form, and nature tries to throw 
off in this way bad blood that might give one 
a worse turn if kept in the body. It can not 
be said too often that next to keeping murder 
and wickedness out of one's soul is the neces- 
sity of keeping one's blood pure by good food, 
strict cleanliness, warmth, and bright, sweet 
air. These troublesome pimples are a sign 
that the young ladies who complain of them 
have eaten food that did not suit them, eaten 



240 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

irregularly, or not bathed often enough, since 
some skins require more frequent cleansing 
and stimulus than others, because they secrete 
more. Perhaps other functions are disturbed, 
or the blood is not stirred enough by lively 
exercise. Directions for diet have been given 
before in these pages. It will be enough to 
recommend people with irritable blood to 
drink a glass or two of mild cider, or eat or- 
anges or lemons, as they fancy, within the half 
hour before each meal, especially before break- 
fast. As hard work or exercise as one can en- 
dure stirs sluggish secretions, and work should 
always be brisk. Many a young woman mopes 
over house -work day after day, standing on 
her feet most of the time, and fancies that 
she has exercise, when her slow blood does 
not once in ten hours receive impulse enough 
to send it vigorously from head to foot in a 
way one could call living. "Work swiftly 
and rest well," ought to be a woman's rule. 
When the blood flows swiftly, the eye is clear, 
the sight better, the skin refined, and the 



CARBOLIC BATHS. 



24:1 



whole body feels improvement ; memory and 
thought are improved, idleness takes wing, 
and happiness steals into the heart. 

Young ladies should not give up their 
bathing with carbolic soap. Hot water, with 
a spoonful of prophylactic fluid or phenyl to 
each quart, is a very wholesome bath in skin 
disorders, followed by a brisk rub with crash 
till warm, or wrapping in a blanket by the 
lire till all danger of chilliness is past. The 
phenyl and prophylactic fluid are milder 
forms of carbolic acid, and, like it, disinfect- 
ant and healing. A sponge bath or plunge at 
seventy-five degrees after a hot bath prevents 
all weakening effects and taking cold. None 
but robust persons should ever take baths ex- 
cept in a warm room. The bath-room should 
always be so arranged as to be heated in a 
few minutes. Otherwise the bath is best 
taken in one's own room before the fire. 

The disguise for a bad skin is easily found. 
Refined chalk is the safest thing to use, and 
costs far less by its own name than put up in 



242 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

photograph boxes as " Lily White," etc- Cas* 
carilla powder, which the Cuban ladies use so 
. much, is recommended as entirely harmless. 
It is prepared from a root used in medicine, 
and in New York is sold at all the little Cuban 
shops, with cigars, tropic sweetmeats, and other 
necessaries of life. Either wash the face with 
thick suds from glycerine soap, and dust the 
powder on with a swan's-down puff, remov- 
ing superfluous traces with a fresh puff kept 
for the purpose, or else grind the powder in 
wet linen by pressing it in the fingers, and 
apply w r hat oozes through to the skin. A fine 
wash for a rough or sunburned skin is made 
of two ounces of distilled water, one ounce of 
glycerine, one ounce of alcohol, and half an 
ounce of tincture of benzoin. Without the 
water, and with the addition of two ounces of 
prepared chalk free from bismuth, it makes a 
far better cosmetic for whitening the face than 
any of the expensive " Balms of Youth " or 
"Magnolia Blooms." If a flesh tint is de> 
sired, add a grain of carmine. 



WHITE HANDS. 24:3 

The lesser trial of rough, red hands that 
are not chapped but unsightly, when not 
caused by exposure and work, indicates bad 
circulation of the blood. School-girls who 
study a good deal without due exercise often 
go home with flushed faces and red hands, to 
say nothing of an irritable state of the nerves, 
that can only be righted by very regular sleep 
and exercise, aided by hot foot-baths. Out- 
door exercise in winter is an excellent correc- 
tive for rush of blood to the head. Dancing 
brings the blood into play more healthfully 
than any movement allowed to grown women. 
The hands are improved by wearing gloves 
that fit closely, especially if they are of soft 
castor or dog-skin. In most cases, all that 
is needed to soften hands is to rub sweet- 
almond oil into the skin two or three days in 
succession. A quicker way than this in the 
country is to hold the hand -on a rapidly turn- 
ing grindstone a moment or two. It leaves 
the palm, forefinger, and thumb satin smooth, 
and removes callosities incredibly quick, tak- 



2M Tilt: UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

ing off bad stains at the same time. Farm- 
ers' girls will take note of this, and also that 
rubbing the hands with a slice of raw potato 
will remove vegetable stains. Rubbing the 
hands well with almond-oil, and plastering 
them with as much tine chalk as they can 
take, on going to bed, will usually whiten them 
in three days' time, and this hint may be of 
service before a party of consequence. 

Redness of the nose is a sign of bad circu- 
lation and of humor in the blood. It is best 
treated by applications of phenyl, rubbed on 
often each day, and by alteratives. A spoon- 
ful of white mustard seed taken in water be- 
fore breakfast every morning is of service in 
this case and in rush of blood to the head, 
which always has something to do with con- 
stipation. Refined chalk made into a thick 
plaster with one third as much glycerine as 
water, and spread on the parts, will cool ery- 
sipelatous inflammation and reduce the red- 
ness. 

The secrets of "making-up" have hardly all- 



MA KING -UP. 245 

been mentioned, though the list is growing 
long. What girl does not know that eating 
lump-sugar wet with Cologne just before going 
out will make her eyes bright, or that the 
homelier mode of flirting soap-suds into them 
has the same effect? Spanish ladies squeeze 
orange juice into their eyes to make them 
shine. A Continental recipe for whitening the 
hands looks strong enough : Take half a pound 
of soft-soap, a gill of salad-oil, an ounce of 
mutton tallow, and boil together; after boil- 
ing ceases, add one gill of spirits of wine and 
a scruple of ambergris ; rip a pair of gloves 
three sizes too large, spread them with this 
paste, and sew up. to be worn at night. A 
curious wash, evidently Italian in its origin, is : 
Equal parts of melon, pumpkin, gourd, and 
cucumber seeds pounded to powder, softened 
with cream, and thinned to a paste with milk, 
perfumed with a grain of musk and three drops 
of oil of lemon (oil of jasmine may be substi- 
tuted for the musk). The face, bosom, and arms 
are anointed with this overnight, and washed 



246 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

off in warm water in the morning. The au- 
thority quoted says it adds remarkable purity 
and brilliance to the complexion. Such pains 
will women take for that beauty which, after 
all, is only skin deep. But did not De Stael 
say she would give half her knowledge for 
personal charms. 



WOMEN'S LOOKS AND NERVES. 247 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Women's Looks and Nerves. A Low-toned Generation. 
Children and their Ways. Brief Madness. Women in 
the Woods. Singing. Work well done the Easiest. 
eieep the Remedy for Temper. Hours for Sleep. The 
Great Medicines Sunshine, Music, Work, and Sleep. 

WOMEN'S looks depend too much on the 
state of their nerves and their peace of mind 
to pass them over. The body at best is the 
perfect expression of the soul. The latter 
may light wasted features to brilliance, or 

/ o 

turn a face of milk and roses dark with pas- 
sion or dead with dullness; it may destroy a 
healthy frame or support a failing one. Weak 
nerves may prove too much for the temper of 
St. John, and break down the courage of Sal- 
adin. Better things are before us, coming 
from a fuller appreciation of the needs of 
body and soul, but the fact remains that this 



248 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

is a generation of weak nerves. It shows 
particularly in the low tone of spirits common 
to men and women. They can not bear sun- 
shine in their houses; they find the colors of 
Jacques Minot roses and of Gerome's pictures 
too deep ; the waltz in Traviata is too brill- 
iant, Rossini's music is too sensuous, and Wag- 
ner's too sensational; Mendelssohn is too light, 
Beethoven too cold. Their work is fuss ; in- 
stead of resting, they idle and there is a 
wide difference between the two things. Peo 
pie who drink strong tea and smoke too many 
cigars, read or stay in-doors too much, find 
the hum of creation too loud for them. The 
swell of the wind in the pines makes them 
gloomy, the sweep of the storm prostrates 
them with terror, the everlasting beating of 
the surf and the noises of the streets alike 
weary their worthless nerves. The happy 
cries of school -children at play are a griev- 
ance to them ; indeed, there are people who 
find the chirp of the hearth cricket and the 
singing tea-kettle intolerable. But it is a 



HEALTHY NOISES. 249 

sign of diseased nerves. Nature is full of 
noises, and only where death reigns is there 
silence. One wishes that the men and women 
who can't bear a child's voice, a singer's prac- 
tice, or the passing of feet np and down stairs 
might be transported to silence like that winch 
wraps the poles or the spaces beyond the stars, 
till they could learn to welcome sound, with- 
out which no one lives. 

Children must make noise, and a great deal 
of it, to be healthy. The shouts, the racket, 
the tumble and turmoil they make, are nat- 
ure's way of ventilating their bodies, of send- 
ing the breath full into the very last corner of 
the lungs, and the blood and nervous fluid into 
every cord and fibre of their muscles. Instead 
of quelling their riot, it would be a blessing to 
older folks to join it with them. There is an 
awful truth following this assertion. Do you 
know that men and women go mad after the 
natural stimulus which free air and bounding 
exercise supply ? It is the lack of this most 
powerful inspiration, which knows no reac- 



250 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

tion, that makes them drunkards, gamesters, 
and flings them into every dissipation of body 
and soul. Men and women, especially those 
leading studious, repressed lives, often confess 
to a longing for some fierce, brief madness 
that would unseat the incubus of their lives. 
Clergymen, editors, writing women, and those 
who lead sedentary lives, have said in your 
hearing and mine that something ailed them 
they could not understand. They felt as if 
they would like to go on a spree, dance the 
tarantella, or scream till they were tired. They 
thought it the moving of some depraved im- 
pulse not yet rooted out of their natures, and 
to subdue it cost them hours of struggle and 
mortification. Poor souls ! They need not 
have visited themselves severely if they had 
known the truth that this lawless longing was 
the cry of idle nerve and muscle, frantic 
through disuse. What the clergyman wanted 
was to leave his books and his subdued de- 
meanor for the hill -country, for the woods, 
where he could not only walk, but leap, run, 



WOMEN IN THE WOODS. 251 

shout, and wrestle, and sing at the full strength 
of his voice. The editor needed to leave his 
cigar and the midnight gas-light for a wherry 
race, or a jolly roll and tumble on the green. 
The woman, most of all, wanted a tent built 
for her on the shore, or on the dry heights of 
the pine forest, where she would have to take 
sun by day and balsamic air by night; where 
she would have to leap brooks, gather her own 
fire-wood, climb rocks, and laugh at her own 
mishaps. Or, if she were city-pent, she need- 
ed to take some child to the Park and play 
ball with it, and run as I saw an elegant girl 
dressed in velvet and furs run through Madi- 
son Square one winter day with her little sis- 
' ter. The nervous, capricious woman must be 
sent to swimming -school, or learn to throw 
quoits or jump the rope, to wrestle or to sing. 
There is nothing better for body and mind 
than learning to sing, with proper method, 
under a teacher who knows how to direct the 
force of the voice, to watch the strength, and 
expand the emotions at the same time. The 
17 



252 THE UGLY - GIRL PAPERS. 

health of many AVOID en begins to improve 
from the time they study music. Why? Be- 
cause it furnishes an outlet for their feelings, 
and equally because singing exerts the lungs 
and muscles of the chest which lie inactive. 
The power for the highest as well as the 
lowest note is supplied by the bellows of 
the lungs, worked by the mighty muscles of 
the chest and sides. In this play the red 
blood goes to every tiny cell that has been 
white and faint for want of its food ; the 
engorged brain and nervous centres where the 
blood has settled, heating and irritating them, 
are relieved ; the head feels bright, the hands 
grow warm, the eyes clear, and the spirits 
lively. This is after singing strongly for half 
an hour. The same effect is gained by any 
other kind of brisk work that sets the lungs 
and muscles going, but as music brings emo- 
tion into play, and is a pleasure or a relief as 
it is melancholy or gay, it is preferable. The 
work that engages one's interest as well as 
strength is always the best. Per contra, wjiat- 



BLESSING OF WOKK. 253 

ever one does thoroughly and with dispatch 
seldom continues distasteful. There is more 
than we see at a glance in the command, 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might." The reason given, because 
the time is short for all the culture and all the 
good work we wish to accomplish, is the ap- 
parent one ; but the root of it lies in the neces- 
sities of our being. Only work done with our 
might will satisfy our energies and keep their 
balance. Half the women in the world are 
suffering from chronic unrest, morbid ambi- 
tions, and disappointments that would flee like 
morning mist before an hour of hearty, tiring 
work. 

It is not so much matter what the work 
is, as how it is done. 

The weak should take work up by degrees, 
working half an hour and resting, then going 
at it steadily again. It is better to work a lit- 
tle briskly and rest than to keep on the slow 
drag through the day. Learn not only to do 
things well, but to do them quickly. It is 



254: THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

disgraceful to loiter and drone over one's 
work. It is intolerable both in music and in 
life. 

The body, like all slaves, has the power to 
react on its task-master. All mean passions 
appear born of diseased nerves. Was there 
ever a jealous woman who did not have dys- 
pepsia, or a high-tempered one without a tend- 
ency to spinal irritation ? Heathen tempers 
in young people are a sign of wrong health, 
and mothers should send for physician as well 
as priest to exorcise them. The great remedy 
for temper is sleep. No child that sleeps 
enough will be fretful ; and the same thing is 
nearly as true of children of larger growth. 
Not less than eight hours is the measure of 
sleep for a healthy woman under fifty. She 
may be able to get on with less, and do con- 
siderable work, either with mind or hands. 
But she could do so much more, to better sat- 
isfaction, by taking one or two hours more 
sleep, that she can not afford to lose it. Wom- 
en who use their brains teachers, artists, writ- 



HOW TO WIN SLEEP. 255 

ers, and housewives (whose minds are as hard 
wrought in overseeing a family as those of 
any one who works with pen or pencil) need 
all the sleep they can get. From ten to six,^ 
or, for those who do not want to lose theatres 
and lectures altogether, from eleven to seven, 
are hours not to be infringed upon by women 
who want clear heads and steady tempers. 
What they gain by working at night they are 
sure to lose next day, or the day after. It is 
impossible to put the case too strongly. Un- 
less one has taken a narcotic, and sleeps too 
long, one should never be awakened. The body 
rouses itself when its demands are satisfied. 
A warm bath on going to bed is the best aid 
to sleep. People often feel drowsy in the 
evening about eight or nine o'clock, but are 
wide awake at eleven. They should heed the 
warning. The system needs more rest than it 
gets, and is only able to keep up by drawing 
on its reserve forces. Wakefulness beyond 
the proper time is a sign of ill-health as much 
as want of appetite at meals it is a pity that 



256 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

people are not as much alarmed by it. The 
brain is a more delicate organ than the stom- 
ach, and nothing so surely disorders it as want 
of sleep. In trouble or sorrow, light sedatives 
should be employed, like red lavender or the 
bromate of potassa, for the nerves have more 
to bear, and need all the rest they can get. 
The warm bath, I repeat, is better than either. 
Sunshine, music, work, and sleep are the 
great medicines for women. They need more 
sleep than men, for they are not so strong, and 
their nerves perhaps are more acute. Work 
is the best cure for ennui and for grief. Let 
them sing, whether of love, longing, or sorrow, 
pouring out their hearts, till the love returns 
into their own bosoms, till the longing has 
spent its force, or till the sorrow has lifted 
itself into the sunshine, and taken the hue of 
trust, not of despair. 



CAPKICES IN HAIR. 



257 



CHAPTER XXY. 

Changing Wigs and Chignons. Matching Braids. Friz* 
zing the Hair. Crimping -pins. Blonde Hair-pins. 
What Colors Hair. Bleaching Tresses. Sulphur Taste. 
Foxy Locks. Freshening Switches. 

THE secret of content for most women is 
not perfection, but change. They can not 
even be satisfied with their looks long at a 
time ; but Mary, Queen of Hearts as well as 
Scots, must draw an auburn wig over her lux- 
urious tresses, dark and smelling of violets, for 
which regal-haired Elizabeth would have given 
the ruffs out of her best gowns, and her recipe 
for yellow starch with them. The pretty 
Miss Vavasour," who changed her chignon ev- 
ery morning with her costume, was a type of 
the fickle beauties of the day, who are always 
better satisfied with some other woman's style 
than their own. Women of intelligence send 



258 THE UGLY- GIRL PAPERS. 

urgent requests for something to change the 
color of their hair, either to make the front 
locks match the chatelaine braid, or to bleach 
it outright. Fair blondes, whose sunny locks 
have been their pride, find with dismay that 
this infantile tinge, which makes a woman look 
so young and charming, is deepening into ma- 
ture ash-brown a shade with no prestige or 
attraction whatever. In their exact eyes it is 
mortifying to wear a blonde braid several de- 
grees lighter than the crown tresses. These 
last are growing, and constantly change, while 
the ends keep their early tinge. Very few 
light-haired people pass from youth to middle 
age without such a change. But, unless the 
difference is very startling, it may be made 
agreeable by skillfully dressing the hair. 
Light or varied hair should be crimped or 
waved, when its tints will appear like the play 
of light and shade. Contrary to all writers on 
this point, I contend that crimping does not 
necessarily injure the hair. If it is killed 
pulled out by the roots, or broken by frizzing 



TRAINING CURLS. 259 

the blame is due to careless or ignorant 
dressing. My own hair was dressed regular- 
ly twice or thrice a week with hot irons for 
years, and it never grew so fast or was in such 
a satisfactory state. It was thoroughly combed 
and brushed, kept clean by weekly washing, 
and each time it went under the curling-tongs 
it came out moist and stimulated by the heat. 
The reason was, the clever French coiffeur 
knew his business, and never allowed the hot 
iron to come directly in contact with the hair. 
Each lock was done up in papillotes, and then 
pinched with irons as hot as could be without 
scorching. Stiff hair may be trained to curl 
by long and patient treatment with hot irons, 
and be all the better for it. The secret of safe 
hair-dressing is never to pull the hair, never 
scorch, and always wrap a lock in paper be- 
fore applying the iron. Common round curl- 
ing- irons and frizzing -tongs may be safety 
used if thin Manilla paper is folded once 
around them. So in crimping: the hair may 
be done up on stout crimping-pins held by 



280 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

slides, or braided in and out of a loop of thick 
cord, a bit of thin paper folded over the crimp, 
and the pinching-iron used with safety every 
day, provided the hair is not pulled too tight 
in braiding it. The country method, where 
friseur's irons are unknown, is to lay the head 
on a table, and set a hot smoothing-iron on 
the woven lock an awkward but efficient 
process. It is not good to put the hair up on 
metal pins or hair-pins overnight for two rea- 
sons : the perspiration of the head will rust 
the pins, insensibly, so that they will cut the 
hair ; and the contact of iron with the sul- 
phurous gas given out by hair during sleep 
tends to darken and render the color displeas- 
ing. Rubber crimping -pins, fastened by a 
rubber catch, are a late invention, and a great 
improvement. But a loop of thick elastic 
cord is better than any thing. The hair is 
woven in and out as on a hair-pin, the elastic 
holds it when the fingers are withdrawn, and 
it is pleasanter to sleep in than half a dozen 
stiff pins. I know more than one piquant lit- 



BED INSULATORS. 



261 



tie lady whose " naturally " waving tresses are 
the admiration of her friends by this simple 
means ; and as the process has gone on for 
years without lessening the flow of ruffled 
hair, it must be conceded that crimping does 
not always hurt it. Iron hair-pins hurt the 
head more than a generation of frisenrs. The 
latest accusation against them is that they 
draw off the healthy electricity of the head ; 
and to a generation which complains of pa- 
ralysis from using steel pens, and uses patent 
glass insulators for the legs of its bedsteads, 
this will seem no frivolous charge. The pat- 
ent insulators are a fact. Their use is advised 
by medical men for all neuralgic, rheumatic, 
and sleepless people, and one of the largest 
glass firms in New York makes their manu- 
facture a specialty. The patent and perfect 
hair-pin is not yet invented. Kubber pins are 
clumsy if harmless, but there are gilt hair-pins 
made of a yellow composition metal which are 
pleasanter to use than common ones, and very 
becoming in blonde hair. Dark-haired people 



262 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS. 

must stick to the rubber pins, or at least see 
that their black ones are well japanned, so as 
not to cut their locks. 

Kow, to give an opinion about the change 
of hair, we must know something of its nat- 
ure, and what colors it. Wise men say that 
light hair is owing to an abundance of sulphur 
in the system, and dark hair to an excess of 
iron. So if we comb light or red locks with 
lead combs for a long time, the lead acts on 
the snip! in re ted hydrogen evolved by the hair, 
and darkens it. If we can neutralize the iron 
in any way, a contrary effect will be obtained. 
To do this, work at the dark hair precisely as 
if it were an ink-spot to be taken out. The 
skin should not suffer, and to prevent this, oil 
it carefully along the parting, edges, and crown 
of the head, wiping the oil from the hair with 
a soft cloth. Oxalic acid, strong and hot, is 
the best thing to take out spots of ink made 
with iron, and we may try this with the hair. 
To apply this, or any of the preparations 
named, one should be in undress, wearing not 



BLEACHING HAIR. 



263 



a single article whose destruction would be of 
account, for all the acids and bleaching pow- 
ders used ruin clothes if a drop touch them, 
taking the color out, and eating holes in the 
stoutest fabrics. The eyelids and brows should 
be well oiled to prevent the acid from attack- 
ing them, and the hands, shoulders, and face 
will be the better for similar protection. On 
one ounce of pure, strong oxalic acid pour OIIQ 
pint of boiling water, and, as soon as the hands 
can bear it, wet the head with a sponge, not 
sapping it, but moistening thoroughly. The 
effect may be hastened by holding the head in 
strong sunlight, or over a register, or the steam 
of boiling water. Five minutes ought to show 
a decided change, but if it do not, wet again 
and again, allowing the acid to remain as long 
as it does not eat the skin. This may not be 
hard to bair, but it will make the hair fall out, 
Another mode is to cover the hair with a 
paste of powdered sulphur and warer, and sit 
in the sun with it for several hours. 'The Ve- 
netian ladies used to steep their tresses in 



264: THE UGLY "GIRL PAPERS. 

caustic solutions, and sit in their balconies in 
the sun all da} 7 , bleaching it ; and yet another 
day, that the same rays might turn it yellow. 
Perhaps they gained by their folly in one way 
what they lost in another, for such an airing 
and sunning would benefit the health of any 
woman. A paste of bisulphate of magnesia 
and lime is very effectual for bleaching the 
hair; but it must be used with great caution 
not to burn hair, skin, and brains together. 
The moment it begins seriously to attack the 
skin it should be washed off in three waters, 
with lemon juice or vinegar in the last one to 
neutralize the alkali. These pastes are recom- 
mended to turn ash -colored hair light. To 
bleach dark hair is a long and tedious process, 
and such an utter piece of foolery that I do 
not care to recount the directions for it. The 
desire to change the color of the hair can only 
be justified when it is of a dull and sickly ap- 
pearance, and this is best mended by improv- 
ing the general health. Hair can not be 
glossy, rich-colored, and thick unless the bod- 



TO FRESHEN SWITCHES. 265 

ily vigor is what it should be. Indeed, hair is 
one of the surest indexes to the state of health. 
Scorched and foxy locks are a sign of neglect 
and of bad secretions. Brushing remedies the 
first condition, hygiene the next. But among 
the varieties of treatment specially appropri- 
ate to restoration of the hair, sulphur vapor- 
baths must once more be mentioned. Doses 
of sulphur, taken in Dotheboys' fashion week- 
ly, with molasses, will be of service in/ keeping 
the blood pure, and in time will affect the 
hair; but this powerful agent should not be 
used without advice of a physician, and the 
dose should be always followed by simple pur- 
gatives, like mustard-seed, figs, or prunes, eaten 
freely. Chlorines and chlorides are specifics 
for bleaching hair, but they turn it gray or 
white, and the yellow tinge is dyed afterward. 
Sulphurous applications are the safest, if com- 
mon caution is used not to take cold after- 
ward or to breathe any fumes from them. 

Switches that have lost freshness may be 
very much improved by dipping them into 



2G6 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

common ammonia without dilution. Half a 
pint is enough for the purpose. The life and 
color of the hair is revived as if it were just 
cut from the head. This dipping should be re- 
peated- once in three months, to free the switch 
from dust, as well as to insure safety from 
parasitic formations. The subject of color- 
ing the hair will be spoken of in another 
chapter. 



HARMONIES OF HAIR. 267 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Hair and Complexion. Black Dyes. Persian Blue-Black. 
Peroxide of Hydrogen. Chloride of Gold. Transient 
Dyes. 

IF it were easy to change the color of one's 
hair, and possible to fix that change, which it 
is not, the result in most cases would be far 
from desirable. Nature tints hair and com- 
plexion in harmony with each other, and 
both should be deepened if one is altered. 
Human pictures as well as canvas would oft- 
en be improved by bringing out the colors, 
but the free hand of Health, that divine artist, 
is the only one whose work is tolerable or en- 
during. In health this harmony of tint is va- 
ried and delicate, ranging from the rose-and- 
snow complexions that suit the true blonde 
doree, the translucent honeysuckle - pink that 

sets off red-brown, blue-black, and olive-brown 
18 



268 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

hair with decided warmth of cheeks, or pur- 
ple-black reflets of the tresses with Spanish 
crimson, or rather the burning rose of tropic 
blood seen through smooth skin. Occasional- 
ly there comes an exciting discord, a minor 
strain of color that affects one like subtle 
music, such as the finding of dark eyes and 
golden hair, or clear, brilliant blue eyes in a 
gypsy face ; but it is impossible to compose 
heads in reality with any satisfying results as 
yet. We have yet to learn how to work from 
the inside out, which is the only true method 
with human modeling. 

All that can be said on "this point, however, 
will not make the red-haired girl one whit less 
ardent in her desire to see her locks of darker 
shade, that they may be less conspicuous, or 
keep the dark-haired woman from the coveted 
vision of bright locks and black eyes. It is 
useless to talk about the dangers of the proc- 
ess, or hint that orpiment and realgar are 
deadly poisons. If every hair had to turn 
into a living snake while undergoing the 



BLACK HAIR-DYE. 269 

change, it would hardly daunt this courageous 
vanity. The best to be hoped from any far- 
ther enlightenment is that they will renounce 
these active poisons for something compara- 
tively harmless. Dn reste, all readers will be 
interested in the secrets of the toilet, ai)d the 
sight of science turned coiffeur. 

It is comparatively a simple matter to dye 
hair black. Sulphur is one of the constituents 
of hair, which exhales it constantly in the 
form of sulphureted hydrogen, fortunately of 
the weakest sort, or it would be intolerable. 
When wet with a solution of certain metals, 
the action of this gas turns the hair black. 
Lead combs owe their efficiency to this cause. 
The lead which rubs on the hair is darkened 
by the gas, but the trace of lead at each 
combing is so slight that the operation must 
be many times repeated before it takes effect. 
But lead-coloring, whether applied by combs 
or by the paste of litharge, is a slow poison, 
not seldom causing paralysis, and even death. 
The absorption of lead into the system at any 



270 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

part is dangerous, but trebly so when applied 
so closely to the brain. The tint given by 
this means, as well as that dyed with nitrate 
of silver, is unnatural, greenish, and rusty in 
the light, needing continual repetition to ap- 
pear decent. 

Orientals are in the habit of dyeing their 
hair and beards the deep jetty black which 
they admire, if nature have not given them 
the desired depth of color. For this purpose 
Turks and Egyptians use a thick solution of 
native iron ore in pyrogallic acid, which gives 
the blackest and most unimpeachable color.- 
The Persians prefer blue-black, and use indigo 
to produce it. European hair-dyers use a so- 
lution of iron, with hydrosulphate of ammonia 
to develop and fix the color, but the odor is 
objectionable. Dyes need to be applied once 
a week to keep the color vivid, and it is well 
to touch the partings twice as often with a 
fine comb dipped in the dye, as the hair al- 
ways shows the natural color as fast as it 
grows from the roots. 



BLEACHING PREPARATIONS. 271 

Red and flaxen hair is changed to gold 
with little trouble, but dark hair must be 
bleached with chlorine before the desired tinge 
is given. The bleaching is the most difficult 
part of the work. Solutions sold for the pur- 
pose oi'tenest consist of peroxide of hydrogen 
a somewhat costly liquid, I am told. Solu- 
tion of sulphurous acid will also bleach hair; 
so will solutions of bisulphide of magnesia 
and of lime. The hair, properly faded or 
whitened, is colored yellow witli solutions of 
cadmium, arsenic, or gold, but the cause of 
the change is the same that produces black 
dye. The reaction of sulphureted hydrogen 
on silver or lead turns things black, but on 
the metals first named turns them yellow. 
Arsenic in the shape of orpiment or reaU 
gar, two deadly poisons, is the base of most 
golden hair dyes, and numerous cases of poi- 
soning have resulted from their use. Cadmi- 
um is harmless, and yields quite as brilliant 
a tinge as arsenic, though less used. Chloride 
of gold dyes a very satisfactory brown, availa- 



272 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS. 

ble for eyebrows, lashes, and whiskers. It 
must be used with exceeding care, however, 
for it stains the skin as well as the hair. If 
applied with a fine-tooth comb dipped in the 
liquid, combing the ends first, and ceasing just 
before the skin is reached, the dye will prob- 
ably "take" by means of capillary attraction, 
without affecting the face. Cautious use of 
this preparation on the brows and lashes gives 
very pleasing results when these are much 
paler than the hair. They should be first 
carefully oiled, and the oil wiped off the hair, 
which is then touched with a fine sable pencil. 
Fortunately, bleaching and dyeing are both 
such tedious processes that this circumstance 
alone will keep many persons from submitting 
to their bondage. Once applied, the dye be- 
comes a necessity, much harder to leave off 
than to begin, as the English Dr. Scoffern 
says, who is authority for most suggestions in 
this chapter. One can not blame those per- 
sons who brush the roots of the hair or fore- 
head and neck with amber lavender to dis- 



TRANSIENT DYES. 273 

guise their pale, unsightly appearance, and a 
touch of the same liquid on white eyebrows 
does no harm. Walnut bark, steeped a week 
in Cologne, gives a dye that is transient, but 
easily applied with a brush each day, and has 
instant effect. It takes a day or two to bleach 
hair, and hours to color it either black or yel- 
low ; and the work has to be done over month 
by month in a fashion that brings the victim 
to .speedy repentance of her folly. 



INDEX. 



Acid, Sulphurous, page 85. 

Age, Dev.ces of Uneasy, '212. 

Amateur Hair-dressers, 89. 

Appearance, how to Improve your Personal, 96. 

Arabian Women Perfume themselves, how, 131. 

Anns Whitening the, 04 ; a Paste for Arms and Shoulders, 90 ; how 

to Whiten the, 112; a Paste for Whitening the, 128; Exercise to 

Develop the, 231. 
Artists, Woman's, 81, 88. 
Authors Eat, how, 102. 
Awakened, Persons should not be, 255. 
Awkward, when Girls are, 227. 

Balconies and Parks, in, 98. 

Banting System for Reducing Flesh, 115; a Quaint Author, 1T6. 

Bath Towels, 54; Diana of Poitiers', 71 ; Sun, 97; the Vapor, 129, 
170 ; Sulphur Vapor, 130; Tepid, 152; a Bath is au Extra at a Ho- 
tel, 168 ; Sulphur, 170; the Bran, 171 ; the Russian Vapor, 205, 206, 
207; Sensations after a Russian, 208 ; the Sit/,,230; a Hot Soap- 
suds, 241 ; a Sponge, 241 ; a Warm Bath Good for the Nerves, 256. 

Bathe, how Ofien we should, 171. 

Bathing the Value of Hot, 54 ; Magic Influence of, 89; Bathing- 
Powder, 94; Directions for, 159; Experiments in Sulphur, 199; 
Influence of, on Nerves and Passions, 209 ; Bathing for Girls, 227. 

Baths Sun, 20; a Substitute for Sea, 55: Fashionable, 87 ; Public, 
129, 201; a Substitute for Vapor, 170; Turkish Baths for Corpu- 
lency, 178; Sulphur, 198; Cautions about Sulphur Vapor, 200 ; the 
Time to take Sulphur, 200; Prices of Sulphur, 201 ; how to take 
Sulphur, 202; Hot Baths for Hot Weather, 203 ; Russian Baths at 
Home, 204; what Public Baths arc, 205; what Baths should be, 
205 ; Improvements Needed in Public, 205 ; for Drunkards, 210. 

Bay Rum for the Face, 172. 

Bairn's* Pate, 160. 

Beauty the Worth of, 71 ; Care of Personal, 72 Beauty in the Hu- 

man Form, 86 ; Literature of, 136. 

Bed, Time to go to, 255. 

Beer, Root, 93. 

Belle, a, must Row, Swim, Skate, and Ride, 224. 

Belles of our Cities, Old, 149. 

Bites of Insects on Children, 81. 

Blackboards, 230. 



276 



INDEX. 



Bleached by the Dawn, 97. 

Blonde Hair, how to Make, 68: Blonde Hair-pins, 261. 

Blondes, Advice to, 20. 

Blood, Mild Cider for Irritable, 240 ; Dew-cool Air as a Blood Tonic, 

97. 

Bloom Almond, 05; Decay of, U6. 
Body, Nobility of the, 105. 

Bonaparte, Princess Pauline her Lovely Foot, 162. 
Braces, 230 ; Shoulder Braces, 38. 
Braids, Matching, 258. 
Brain Brain-work takes Food, 102 ; the Brain Dependent on the 

Body, 107 ; the Brain moie Delicate than the Stomach, 256. 
Bread, True, 99,100. 

Breakfasts, 98; Christiana's Breakfast, 98. 
Breath an Offensive, 55 ; how to Secure a Fragrant, 56. 
Bust Development of the, 233 ; Improving the, 234. 

Calisthenics. 38. 

Camphor for the Face, 172. 

Carriage of Southern Women, 44. 

Cascanlla Powder, 74. 

Caution, a Needed, 235. 

Cazenave's, Dr., Composition for the Face, 73. 

Celnart's, Madame, Works of the Toilet, 134; Recipe f r Removing 
all Traces of Tobacco in the Breath, 156. 

Chignons and Wi^s. Changing, 257. 

Chilblains, a Relief for, 190. 

Children their Irritations, 121 ; their Ways, 248, 24?. 

Chilliness is a Symptom of Diseases, 51. 

Chills are Incipient Congestion, 52. 

Christiana's Looks, 90; her Breakfast, 98. 

Cider, Mild, for Irritable Blood. 240. 

Cigars, People who Smoke too Many, 248. 

Circulation, Charm of, 51. 

Cleanliness means Health, 104. 

Clergymen, Sensations of, 250. 

Clothing, Paper, 52. 

Coiffu e, Arts of the, 133. 

Cold L earn. 84. 

Cologne, how to Make, 58. 

Color, how to Procure Freshness of, CO. 

Comedones, or Black Worms, how to Remove, 75. 

Complexion how to Acquire a Clear, 13; to Clear the, 17; Prepa- 
rations for Oily, 19 ; how to Procure a Fine, 21 ; Danger of Paint- 
ing the, 6!>; Rain-water as a Bath for the, 71 ; Best Wash for the, 
74; Cure for Bad Effects of Sun and Wind on the, SO; the Com- 
plexion Ruined by Fumes of Medicine, 85 ; Iris Hues of the, 92; 
what Complexion is the Sign of, 90 : Early Walks Improve the, 97 ; 
Effect of Sunshine on the, 9S; Complexions Improved by Taking 
Sulphur Vapor-Baths, 130; about Complexions, 192 ; Complexion 
gives Trouble to Full-blooded Girls, 193.; Pure Blood Makes a 
Good, 199 ; how to Dress with a Dull, 215 ; Girls' Complexions, '/ill ; 
Trouble with the Complexion in Cold Weather, 238; how to Im- 
part a Brilliant, 245 ; the, 207. 



INDEX. 2 77 

Composers, a Nervous Opinion of, 248. 
Congestions, Vapor-Bath Good for, 1TO. 

CorVs^oo^e 1 ' Shoe's the Cause of, ICO; Soft, 191; Remedies for, 

191. 

Corpulence, Danger of, 182. 

Corpulency, Trials of, 177 ; Turkish Baths for, 178. 
Corsets-about, 105; Girdles more Needed than, 105; Singing Scales 

with Corsets off, 232 ; the Best, 2-53. 
Cosmetic Artist, 87 ; Gloves, 89, 245 ; Cosmetic, 140 ; Sultana's, 144; 

Milk of Roses as a, 153; Cosmetics sometimes play Tricks, 194. 
Crimping the Art of, 83; does not Injure the Hair, 258; Crimping' 

pins, 259 ; Rubber Crimping-pins, 200. 

Curl the Hair, how to, 84; Curling Fluid, 28 ; Curling-irons, 259. 
Custom, 93. 
Cuts, SO. 

Dancers Eat, how, 102. 

Dancing, 243. 

Daughter's Dressing, a Mother should Inspect her, 22b. 

Dawn. Bleached by the, 97. 

Dentifrice Delicate, 57 ; Standard, 143. 

Depilatories, 32 ; Cautions about, 128, 129. 

Devices of Uneasy Age, 212. 

Devonshire, Duchess of, 14'.). 

Diet for Persons with Hepatic Spots, 173 ; for Stout People, 180 ; 
for Girls, 223. 

Digestion, Food for Weak, 14. 

Diseases Chilliness is a Symptom of, 51 ; Eruptive, 80. 

Dress how to, 219 ; Poor Taste in, 220 ; for Girls, 228 ; for Flat Fig- 
ures, 234. 

Dresses for Girls, 233. 

Dressing on Two Hundred a Year, 215. 

Drinks Cooling, 20 ; Summer, 92, 93. 

Drowsy, go to Bed when you feel, 255. 

Dwellings, about our, 209. 

Dye a Harmless, 91 ; how to Apply, 91 ; French, 91 ; Persian Blue- 
black, 270; fr White Eyebrows, 273. 

Dves for the Hair, 29; for the Eyelashes and Eyebrows, 30; for 
Theatricals, 34; Chloride of Gold, 271 ; Transient, 273. 

Dyspepsia, Jealous Women have, 254. 

Eat, how to, 102. 
" Kan Angelique,"157. 
Editors, Sensations of, 250. 
Eliot, George, on Complexions, 73. 
Emotion, Training of, 151. 
Enamel, Baking, 145. 
Enigma of Love, the, 147. 

Exercise to Develop the Arms, 231 ; for Girls, 232 ; Out-door, 251. 
Expression is the Siirn of, what, 95. 
Eyebrows how to Grow, 90; a Dyo for White, 273. 
Eyelashes and Eyebrows Dyeinir the, J'.o ; Washes for, 1: Trim* 
med and Brushed, 88 ; how to Grow, 91. 



278 INDEX. 



Eyes Bright, Eating Sugar with Cologne on Makes the, 245. 
Eyes, Dark, 122. 

Face Means of Softening the, 19; Making-up'the, 61 ; Composi- 
tions for the, 73 ; Olive-oil and Tar for the, 120 ; a Preparation for 
Whitening the, 145 : Pastes and Poultices for the, 172. 

Faces Good for Irritable, 120; Bleaching, 198; Dull, Thin, 218; 
School-girls' Flushed, 243. 

Faults, Common, 96. 

Feelings, never Talk of a Girl's, before Her, 230. 

Feet Care of the. 40, 162 ; Position of, when Standing, 40; how to 
Keep the Feet Elastic, 42 ; Painful Swelling of, 42 ; how to Bathe 
the, 102; Oil for the, 103. 

Figure Erectness of the, 38; the Proper Carriage of the, when 
Walking, 42 ; what a Fine Figure must be, 225 ; Care of the, after 
Nursing, 230. 

Figures, Flat, 234. 

Fine Arts, School of, 110. 

Finirer Thimbles, 124. 

Finger-tips, Coloring of the, 66. 

Flesh how to Reduce, 93; Banting System for Reducing, 175; Los- 
ing Flesh at the Kate of a Pound a Week, 182. 

Folks, Older, to Join with the Children, 241). 

Food for Weak Digestion, 14; Brain-work takos, 102; about our, 
209. 

Form Renovating the Outward, 12 ; Beauty in the Human, 80. 

Freckles Golden,' 78; how to Remove, 79. 

Freckle Wash, 114. 

French Dye, 91. 

Frizzing t'he Hair, 259. 

Frizzing-tongs, 259. 

Gargle for the Mouth, 157. 

Generation, a Low-toned, 247. 

Girdle, a Linen, 105. 

Girdles more Needed than Corsets, 105. 

Girls Physical Education of, 224; when Girls are Awkward, 227; 
Bathing for, 227 : I)>r f.,r, 22$; Dress for, 228; Exercise for, 232; 
Care of Young, 235 : Delicacy due Young, 235. 

Gloves, Cosmetic, S'. ; Close-tilting, 243. 

Grace the Secret of, 3S ; how to Inspire a Girl with, 226; in Wom- 
en, Sign of, 234. 

Gums, a Recipe for Diseased, 160. 



Hair Black, how to Dye, 13 ; Care of the, 22 ; how to Cultivate Chil- 
dren's, 23; Washes, 24: Means of Obtaining Luxuriant, 26; when 
toCut,20: German Method of Treating the. 27 ; Curling Fluid for 
the. 28 ; Oil for the, 28 ; Dyes, 29, 189: how to Treat Red, 81 ; Super- 
fluous, 32 ; Growth of, 33; how to Brush the, 33: Hair Powders, 
67; to Darken the, 68 ; how to make Blonde, 68; Fashionable 
Gray. 82; Preparation for Preventing the Sea-air from Turning 
the *fiir Gray, 82; Preparation for Restoring the Color of the, 
8'2; how to keep Hair Crimped or Curled, 83; how to Curl the, 84; 
Bather, 87; Dressers, Amateur, Sir. a Wash U/S t i mala te the Growth 



INDEX. 379 

of, 90; Bleaching, 121, 263; Removal of Hair on the Face, 125; Re- 
moval of Superfluous, 1*25; a Paste for Removing Hairs from the 
Face. 12T ; Countries whtere Women have the Finest, 132; Ef- 
fect of the Sun on the, 138 ; Burdock Wash for the, 180 ; how t.i 
keep, from Coining Out, 1ST; how to Restore Color to the, 188; 
Dye,Cheapest and most Harmless, 1S9 ; Restorer, Sperm-oil a, 189 ; 
Hay-colored, 221 ; how to Dress the, 221 ; FaK-e, 251 ; Changing 
the' Color of the, 258; Crimping does not Injure the, 258; Light, 
should be Crimped, 258 ; Dead, should be Pulled Out by the Roots, 
268; Frizzing the, 259; Hair-pins, Blonde, '261 ; Iron Hair-pins Hint 
the Head, 201 ; Cause of Light, 20-2 ; what Colors, 202 ; Foxy, 265 
how to Change Red and Flaxen, 271. 

Hands, how to Soften the, 111, 243 ; how to Whiten the, 112; Bran' 
Mittens for Whitening the, 172 ; how to Secure Good, for Girls, 231 ; 
Trouble with the, iii Cold Weather, 238; School-girls' Flushed, 
243 ; for Removing Vegetable Stains from the, 244. 

Harvey, Mr. William, ISO"; Honors to Dr., 184. 

Health, Cleanliness means, 164. 

Heart Dependent on the Body, the, 167. 

Hepatic Spots, Remedies for, 173. 

High Living, Effects of, 125. 

Homely Women, Hope for, 95. 

Hours of Solitude, Reserve our, 149. 

Hugo says, what Victor, 109. 

Humors to the Surface, Drawing, 196. 

Infant, do not Wash an, with Cheap Soap, 161. 
Ink or Vegetable Stains, how to Remove, 112. 
Insulators, Patent, 261. 
Iris, Florentine. 138. 
Italian Ladies, Habit of, 75. 

Joints, to Restore Suppleness to the, 153. 

Lacing, Arts of, 136. 

Leaves are Full of Joy, 165. 

Lecturers Eat, how, 102. 

Linen, E"crn, and White Nausook, 217. 

Lip-Salve, 114. 

Lips, Color for the, 07. 

Looks, Woman's, 247. 

Love the Enigma of, 147; the Love of Man, 147; to Love and be 

Loved, 147; Power of, over Man, 147 ; Effect of, on Women, 148; 

Miracle of, 148. 

Madness, Brief, 249. 

Magnificent, Easier to be, than Clean, 168. 

"Making-lip," the Secrets of, 244. 

Malmaison, Josephine of, 150. 

Man Admires in Woman, what, 225. 

Manners, Education in, 35. 

Medicines for Women, the Great Sunshine, Music, Work, and Sleep, 

250 
Milk of Roses, 66, 153. 



280 INDEX. 



Mirrors, Advantages of Lining Rooms with, 221. 

Moles, 33. 

Montagu, Lady Mary, 75. 

Moutez, Lola, Recipe of, 154. 

Mother, a, should Inspect her Daughter's Dressing, '2-2G. 

Mothers a Word to, 109 : Prescription for Feeble, '211. 

Month, Gargle f >r the, 157. 

Murray's Book, Lines from, 190. 

Music Influence of, 148; Women should Study, 252. 

Mtisquito Bites, si. 

NailsPolishing the, S3 ; how to give a Fine Color to the, 112 ; In- 

growing, 16:>. 
N ii n sook, White, 212. 

Neck, a Preparation for Whitening the, 145. 
Needle, how to hold a, Gracefully, 137. 
Neighbors, Pulling our, to Pieced, 90. 
Nerves, Woman's, ''247. 
Nervous Prostration, Cure for, 13 ; Nervous and Sanguine People, 

Diet for, 15. 

Nets vs. Night-Caps, 25. 
Neuralgia, Sulphur Vapor-Bath for, 130,170. 
Nose, Redness of the, 244. 
Nose-Machine, a, 1-23. 
Nursing, Care of the Figure after, 230. 

Oil for the Hair, 28 ; of Mace, 187. 

Oils, Sweet, 15:-J. 

Ointment, Olive, 105. 

Olive-Oil and Tar for the Face, 120. 

Out-door Exercise, 251. 

Padding, against, 233. 

Paint and Powder, 59. 

Painting the Complexion, Danger r.f, 09. 

Paleness, Northern and Southern, 78. 

Pallor, Sinning, 77. 

Paper as a Preventative against Chilliness, 52. 

Parks and Balconies, in, '. I, 

Parties, Preparing for, 238. 

Passions, how to Quiet our, 20 

Paste for Shoulders and Arms, TO; for Removing Hairs from the 
Face, 127; for Whitening the Arms, 128 ; of Venus, 139; Sulphur, 
203. 

Pastilles, Gray, for Purifying the Breath, 150. 

Pate, BazluV, 160, 

Perfume of the Presence, 49 ; how Arabian Women Perfume them- 
selves, 131 ; Perfumes, 141 ; for the Body, 142 ; Lost, 143 ; of Sprinsr, 
149 ; of ihe Bath, 159. 

Perspiration Preparation for Profuse, 93; Cure for Odor of the, 
159 ; Dangers Resulting from Suddenly Checking, 203. 

Petrarch's Laura, 88. 

Physical Culture Urgent, 107. 

Physical Education of Girls, 224. 



INDEX. 281 

Piano, Pract'ce at the, 229. 

Pimples a Recipe to Remove, 74 ; are Disease, 239. 

Pi in pie- Wash, 114. 

Pomades, 25; Southernwood, 29 ; Almond, 84 ; Mexican, 141. 

Powder, 02; Chalk, 63; Cascarilla,74, 242; Bathing, 94. 

Powder and Paint, 59. 

Preparation for Profuse Perspiration, 93. 

Presence, Perfume of the, 49. 

Prime, Woman's, 11. 

Principals of Schools, a Word to, 109. 

Prophylactic Fluid, 241. 

Prostration, Cure for Nervous, 13. 

Queen of England, the, uses Distilled Water for her Toilet, 162> 

Races Grace of the Latin, 37 ; Antique, 226. 

Recamier's Training, TO. 

Recipes-for Warm Days, 92 ; Perfume, 139, 140, 141, 143. 

Rheumatism, Good for, 170. 

Rooms, Advantages of Lining, with Mirrors, 221. 

Roses, Milk of, 6t>. 

Rouge Tints of, 64 ; Devoux French, CO. 

Rusma, Oriental, 133. 

Sallowness, how to Remove, 92. 

Salve Lip, 114; Toilet, 114. 

Scalp, Preparations for Dry, 25. 

Scrofulous Affections, Good for, 201. 

Sea-Baths, a Substitute for, 55. 

Shoe-Lining, 164. 

Shoes, Tight, 41. 

Shoulder Braces, 38 ; how to Acquire Sloping Shoulders, 40 ; a Paste 
for Arms and Shoulders, 90; Device for Stiff Shoulders, 103. 

Singers and Students, Diet for, 15 ; how Singers Eat, 102; Training 
of, 151 ; Singing Scales with Cornets off, 232 ; Singing, 251. 

Situation, Accepting the, 214. 

Skin Irritations of the, 20; Prescription for the, 79 ; pure for Rough 
Skins from Yachting, 79 ; Rough, 80 ; Summer Irritations of the, 
81 ; Inflammation of the, 85; for Improving the, 113; how to Pro- 
long the Freshness of the, 152; Bran Cleanses the, 171 ; a Recipe 
for Sunburned and Freckled, 192 ; Cause of Rough, 193; Effect of 
Consumption on the, 195. 

Sleep the Remedy for Temper, 254 ; Number of Hours to, 254 ; Peo 
pie who Need Much, 255. 

Soaps Quality of, 160; do not use Cheap, 161 ; Carbolic, 238. 

Solitude, Reserve our Hours of, 149. 

Southern Women, Cavri;ige of, 44. 

Southernwood Pomade, 29. 

Spirits, how to Obtain t'nfailing, 101. 

Stains, how to Remove Ink or Vegetable, 112. 

Still, a Small, 1(59. 

Stippled Skin, Cure for, 18. 

Stockings, how Often to Change, 163. 

Stomach, to Maintain a Healthy Condition of the, 18. 



282 INDEX. 

Stont and Thin People, Food for, 16 ; a Hint to Stout People, 93; 

why People Grow Stout, 102. 
Study, a Veto on Close, 229. 
SupeYfluons Hair, 32. 
Surgeon, a Wise, 180. 

Swimming-School, Nervous Women should go to, 251. 
Switches, Freshening, '205. 

Tan-Wash, 114. 

Tar, 195. 

Tea, People who Drink Strong, 243. 

Teeth for Decaying, 56; Cleansing of the, 57; Wash for the, 143. 

Temper, how to Soothe the, 20!) ; Sleep the Remedy for, 254; Heathen 
Tempers a Sign of Wrong Health, 254. 

Theatricals, Dyes for, 34. 

Thin and Stout People, Food for, 16. 

Tint, a Brown, 91. 

Tobacco in the Breath, Remedy for, 156. 

Toilet W T ater, 58, 140 ; Antique Toilet Arts, 60 : the Toilet a Profes- 
sion, 87 ; Influence of a Luxurious, 88 ; Luxury of the, SS ; Artistic 
at the, 110 ; Cares of the, 136 ; Craft of the. lf>2 : Toilet Waters and 
Pastes, 161 ; Distilled Water for the, 169 ; Plain Women and 
Agreeable, 215. 

Toothache, Recipe for the, 155. 

Tooth- Wash, 158. 

Towels, Bath, 54. 

Training, Recamier's, 70. 

Tweezers, Roman, 126. 

Typhoid Fever sometimes Caused by High Living, 126. 

Ulcers, 80. 
Unfeminine Traits, 108. 

Vanities, Different, 109. 
Vestris. Madame. 152. 
Vitriol, Wash of, 76. 

Wakefulness a Sign of Ill-Health, 255. 

Walking in Relation to Health, 46. 

Warm Days, Recipes for, 92. 

Wash of 'Vitriol, 76: to Stimulate the Growth of Hair, 90: a Sand, 
111 ; for Tan, Freckles, Pimples, and Blotches, 114 ; for Teeth 01 
Hands, 143; for Sunburned Skin, 242; Glycerine, 24'2. 

Water Toilet, 5S, 140 ; Distilling 168; Distilled Water for the Toi^ 
ler.169. 

Weak, how the, should Work, 253. 

Wire, ii Senator's, 218. 

WILTS, Blonde, for Theatricals, 68; Wigs and Chignons, Changing, 257, 

Wiiiis, X.P.,on Beauty, 48. 

Woman -her Business to be Beautiful, 9; Woman's Artists, 87, 88 ; 
R Health j Woman, 107: the Loveliest Woman of France, 150; Trials 
of a Plain, 185; how a Homely Woman can make Herself Agree- 
able, 215; what Man Admires in a, 225; Woman's Value in the 
World, 225; a Woman's Rule, 240; Woman's Looks and Nerves, 247 



INDEX. 283 

Women Carriage of Southern, 44; Hope for Homely, 95; Trans- 
formation of Homely Women into Charming Beings, 95; Sorrows 
of Ugly, 110 ; Effect of Being in Love on, 148; at and after Thir- 
ty, 150; Counsel to Women of Thirty, 115; Porcelain, 19<J ; what 
is to be Done with Weak, 190; Plain Women and Agreeable Toi- 
lets, 215; Sensations of Writing, 250; Nervous Women should <^> 
to Swimming-School, 251 ; why Women should Study Music, 252 ; 
Jealous Women have Dyspepsia, 254 ; why Women Need more 
Sleep than Men, 256 ; the Secret of Content for most, 25T. 

Work a Nervous Person's, is Fuss, 24S ; how the Weak should, 25P> ; 
well done the Easiest, 253. 

Worms Black, or Comedones, how to Remove, 75 ; Flesh, 239. 

Wrinkles a Kind of Varnish for, 75; how to Ward off, 152; Bread- 
Paste and Court-Plaster to Conceal, 213. 



THE END. 



19 



